Thinking is all about making connections in the brain. Reveal something about how you and your friends think using this simple Word Association game of making connections between words! Play Word Association with a small group of two to eight players. It works nicely as a
conversation starter, a car game, or as a drinking game. Everyone sits in a circle. The first player, chosen randomly, says one word out loud. The next player, in clockwise order, has to quickly say a word that has some connection with the previous word. What counts a connection is down to the parliament of players to determine: if somebody doesn’t like a connection, they can challenge it,
and everyone votes on whether or not to allow it. In the event of a tie, the word is allowed. A player is eliminated, or takes a forfeit, if any of the below happen: Eliminated players can still make challenges and cast votes.
The last player standing is the winner. For example, one sequences of words might be:
At this point one player makes a challenge, on the grounds that Pluto is no longer considered a planet. Scientists are outnumbered at the table, and the word is allowed, so play continues clockwise.
Another challenge: a player protests by pointing out that Batman is not a Marvel superhero. Pop culture justice is done, and the vote goes against the player. That player is eliminated, and a new round starts with the next player in order. Creative connections and creative challenges are encouraged. Don’t take this game too seriously. Just let the ideas flow and see if you don’t find it interesting or funny! Psychology of Word AssociationFamous psychologist Carl Jung speculated that how somebody responds in a word association exercise might reveal something about their character. The connections of ideas, feelings, memories and knowledge in somebody’s brain all influence the word associations that occur to them. So, the questions is, why would one person’s first thought when they hear the word “cat” be “companion,” and another person’s as “claw.” Does that indicate a difference in a person’s feelings or experiences with cats? What about how long it takes somebody to respond? One suggestion Jung made was that a fear of embarrassment at revealing their first thought was behind. But then, some words are just harder to make connections with. Feel free to interrupt the flow of the game to offer your off-the-cuff psychoanalysis of other players. As long it’s light and playful this game can be the source of many amusing observations. And it might even get you to ask questions about yourself, and how you think about things. Post navigationWord Association is a common word game involving an exchange of words that are associated together. The game is based on the noun phrase word association, meaning "stimulation of an associative pattern by a word"[1] or "the connection and production of other words in response to a given word, done spontaneously as a game, creative technique, or in a psychiatric evaluation".[2] Description[edit]Once an original word has been chosen, usually randomly or arbitrarily, a player will find a word that they associate with it and make it known to all the players, usually by saying it aloud or writing it down as the next item on a list of words so far used. The next player must then do the same with this previous word. This continues in turns for any length of time, but often word limits are set, so that the game is agreed to end after, for instance, 400 words. Usually, players write down the next word by merely using the first word that comes to their mind after they hear the previous one. Sometimes, however, they may put in more thought to find a more creative connection between the words. Exchanges are often fast and sometimes unpredictable (though logical patterns can usually be found without difficulty). Sometimes, a lot of the game's fun can arise from the seemingly strange or amusing associations that people make between words. The game can be played actively or passively, sometimes taking many weeks to complete, and can in fact be played with any number of players, even one. Example: Soda, Sprite, Fairy, Tinkerbell, Peter Pan, Pans, Skillet, Kitchens, Refrigerator, Drinks, Soda Variants[edit]In some games, extra limitations are added; for instance:
Psychology[edit]It is believed[3][by whom?] that word association can reveal something of a person's subconscious mind (as it shows what things they associate together), but others[who?] are skeptical of how effective such a technique could be in psychology. Often, the game's goal is to compare the first and final word, to see if they relate, or to see how different they are, or also to see how many words are repeated. Likewise, players often review the list of words to see the pathways of associations that go from beginning to end. Word association has been used by market researchers to ensure the proper message is conveyed by names or adjectives used in promoting a company's products. For example, James Vicary, working in the 1950s, tested the word 'lagered' for a brewing company. While about a third of his subjects associated the word with beer, another third associated it with tiredness, dizziness and so forth. As a result of the study, Vicary's client decided not to use the word.[4] In the early years of psychology, many doctors noted that patients exhibited behavior that they were not in control of. Some part of the personality seemed to have an influence on that person's behavior that was not in their conscious control. This part was, by function, unconscious, and became so named the Unconscious. Carl Jung theorized that people connect ideas, feelings, experiences and information by way of associations ... that ideas and experiences are linked, or grouped, in the unconscious in such a manner as to exert influence over the individual’s behavior.[] These groupings he named Complexes.[5] See also[edit]
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What is the purpose of word association test?The test was used to diagnose psychological typology and psychopathology. The Word Association Test (WAT) was based on earlier theories of the associationism school of psychology, which studied the laws of mental associations. Jung introduced significant innovations to this method.
What can you learn from word association?Association links new information with old information stored in your memory. If you link a word with an image, it can be linked with other information already stored in your memory and so you will remember it better. For example, to remember a person's name, you can relate it to a feature of their appearance.
How do you explain the word association?A basic word association game involves giving a student a word and having him/her state the first word or phrase that comes to mind. For example, if you say “ball,” the student might say “bat.” You can play this game in a variety of ways.
What is the word association strategy?Cambridge Dictionary says of Word Association, a method sometimes used in psychoanalysis in which the person being treated says the first word they think of when a particular word is said, which may help to discover how parts of the mind work.
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