Mapping Mental Representations With Free Associations: A Tutorial Using the R Package associatoR
People’s understanding of topics and concepts such as risk, sustainability, and intelligence can be important for psychological researchers and policymakers alike. One underexplored way of accessing this information is to use free associations to map people’s mental representations. In this tutorial...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Ubiquity Press
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Cognition |
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| Online Access: | https://account.journalofcognition.org/index.php/up-j-jc/article/view/407 |
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| author | Samuel Aeschbach Rui Mata Dirk U. Wulff |
| author_facet | Samuel Aeschbach Rui Mata Dirk U. Wulff |
| author_sort | Samuel Aeschbach |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | People’s understanding of topics and concepts such as risk, sustainability, and intelligence can be important for psychological researchers and policymakers alike. One underexplored way of accessing this information is to use free associations to map people’s mental representations. In this tutorial, we describe how free association responses can be collected, processed, mapped, and compared across groups using the R package associatoR. We discuss study design choices and different approaches to uncovering the structure of mental representations using natural language processing, including the use of embeddings from large language models. We posit that free association analysis presents a powerful approach to revealing how people and machines represent key social and technological issues. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c4337f4ddd484cf485c0ed189f5c92af |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2514-4820 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Ubiquity Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Cognition |
| spelling | doaj-art-c4337f4ddd484cf485c0ed189f5c92af2025-02-11T05:36:32ZengUbiquity PressJournal of Cognition2514-48202025-01-01813310.5334/joc.407406Mapping Mental Representations With Free Associations: A Tutorial Using the R Package associatoRSamuel Aeschbach0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6167-4901Rui Mata1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1679-906XDirk U. Wulff2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4008-8022Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, DE; Center for Cognitive and Decision Sciences, University of Basel, BaselCenter for Cognitive and Decision Sciences, University of Basel, BaselCenter for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, DE; Center for Cognitive and Decision Sciences, University of Basel, BaselPeople’s understanding of topics and concepts such as risk, sustainability, and intelligence can be important for psychological researchers and policymakers alike. One underexplored way of accessing this information is to use free associations to map people’s mental representations. In this tutorial, we describe how free association responses can be collected, processed, mapped, and compared across groups using the R package associatoR. We discuss study design choices and different approaches to uncovering the structure of mental representations using natural language processing, including the use of embeddings from large language models. We posit that free association analysis presents a powerful approach to revealing how people and machines represent key social and technological issues.https://account.journalofcognition.org/index.php/up-j-jc/article/view/407free associationmental representationsintelligencegenerative air package |
| spellingShingle | Samuel Aeschbach Rui Mata Dirk U. Wulff Mapping Mental Representations With Free Associations: A Tutorial Using the R Package associatoR Journal of Cognition free association mental representations intelligence generative ai r package |
| title | Mapping Mental Representations With Free Associations: A Tutorial Using the R Package associatoR |
| title_full | Mapping Mental Representations With Free Associations: A Tutorial Using the R Package associatoR |
| title_fullStr | Mapping Mental Representations With Free Associations: A Tutorial Using the R Package associatoR |
| title_full_unstemmed | Mapping Mental Representations With Free Associations: A Tutorial Using the R Package associatoR |
| title_short | Mapping Mental Representations With Free Associations: A Tutorial Using the R Package associatoR |
| title_sort | mapping mental representations with free associations a tutorial using the r package associator |
| topic | free association mental representations intelligence generative ai r package |
| url | https://account.journalofcognition.org/index.php/up-j-jc/article/view/407 |
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