Association
Association
(Lat. ad + socius, companion) The psychological phenomenon of connection or union between different items in consciousness. The term has been applied to two distinct types of connection(a) the natural or original connection between sensations which together constitute a single perception and (b) the acquired connection whereby one sensation or idea tends to reinstate another idea. The first type of connection has sometimes been called simultaneous association and the second type successive association, but this terminology is misleading since successively apprehended sensations are often conjoined into the unity of a perception, e.g. the bell which I saw a moment ago and the sound which I now hear, while, on the other hand, an idea may in certain cases be contemporaneous with the sensation or idea by which it is revived. The dual application of the term association to both natural and acquired association was made by J. Locke”Some of our ideas,” says Locke “have a natural correspondence or connection with one another . . . Besides this there is another connection of ideas wholly owing to chance or custom.” Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) Bk. II, ch. 33. The usage of later authors, however, tends to restrict the term association to acquired connection ((b) above) and to adopt some other expression such as cohesion, correlation (see Correlation, Sensory) or combination (see Combination) to designate natural connections ((a) above).
A further distinction is drawn between two subvarieties of acquired association viz. spontaneous or free association, in which the revival of associated ideas proceeds by chance and voluntary or controlled association in which it is guided by a dominant purpose. The distinction between chance and voluntary association was also recognized by Locke”The strong combination of ideas not allied by nature makes itself either voluntarily or by chance.” (Ibid.)
The phenomenon of acquired association has long been recognized by philosophers. Plato cites examples of association by contiguity and similarity (Phaedo, 73-6) and Aristotle in his treatment of memory enumerated similarity, contrast and contiguity as relations which mediate recollection. (De Mem. II 6-11 (451 b)). Hobbes also was aware of the psychological importance of the phenomenon of association and anticipated Locke’s distinct!p/n between chance and controlled association (Leviathan (1651), ch. 3; Human Nature (1650), ch. 4). But it was Locke who introduced the phrase “association of ideas” and gave impetus to modern association psychology.
Following Locke, the phenomenon of association was investigated by G. Berkeley and D. Hume both of whom were especially concerned with the relations mediating association. Berkeley enumerates similarity, causality and coexistence or contiguity (Theory of Vision Vindicated (1733), 39); Hume resemblance, contiguity in time or place and cause or effect (Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748), 3; Treatise on Human Nature (1739), Bk. I, Pt. I, 4). English associationism is further developed by D. Hartley, Observations on Man (1749), esp. Prop. XII; J. Mill, Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind (1829), esp. Ch. 3; A. Bain, The Senses and the Intellect (1855); J. S. Mill, Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy (1865). Continental exponents of association psychology are E. B. de Condillac (Essai sur l’origines de connaissances humaines) (1746); Traite de sensations (1754); J. F. Herbart Lehrbuch der Psychologie (1816). — L.W.