What's in a name?

TL;DR

This study investigates the structure of word associations in English using complex network theory, revealing power-law behaviors and hierarchical patterns that may relate to cognitive processes like language and memory.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental approach combining psychophysics and complex network analysis to model word association dynamics.

Findings

Identification of power-law distribution in word associations

Characterization of attraction basins and asymmetries in associations

Evidence of hierarchical structures and strange loops in word categories

Abstract

Among the several findings deriving from the application of complex network formalism to the investigation of natural phenomena, the fact that linguistic constructions follow power laws presents special interest for its potential implications for psychology and brain science. By corresponding to one of the most essentially human manifestations, such language-related properties suggest that similar dynamics may also be inherent to the brain areas related to language and associative memory, and perhaps even consciousness. The present work reports a preliminary experimental investigation aimed at characterizing and modeling the flow of sequentially induced associations between words from the English language in terms of complex networks. The data is produced through a psychophysical experiment where a word is presented to the subject, who is requested to associate another word. Complex network and graph theory formalism and measurements are applied in order to characterize the experimental data. Several interesting results are identified, including the characterization of attraction basins, association asymmetries, context biasing, as well as a possible power-law underlying word associations, which could be explained by the appearance of strange loops along the hierarchical structure underlying word categories.