We are trying to set up a scientific study that is important for many researchers interested in semantics and cognitive science. It is a large-scale word association project, in which people are asked to participate in a small task that doesn't last longer than 5 minutes. Our goal is to build a global word association network that contains connections between about 40,000 words, the size of the lexicon of an average adult. Setting up such a network may teach us a lot about semantic memory, how it develops, and how it can deteriorate (like in Alzheimer's disease). Most people enjoy doing the task, but we need thousands of participants to succeed. That is why we address you. Would you be willing to participate, and/or distribute this call for participation to students, friends, family and other acquaintances who are fluent in English? The network will be freely available to all interested language researchers when it becomes substantial enough.
The task can be found on http://www.smallworldofwords.com.
