Associative word knowledge changes throughout our lives (Anderson, 1983). Thus, the organization and use of this knowledge may vary as a function of cognitive development. However, there are no associative norms that provide information about associative representation of Spanish speaking children. The aim of the present study was to obtain normative data on the associative knowledge of children ranging from 8 to 13 years of age. Thus, 58 words were presented to three groups of 100 children varying in ages (8-9, 10-11, 12-13). Participants were asked to provide the first associate to a presented word that came to mind. Results indicated that there is an increment in the percentage of associates, an increase in the number of idiosyncratic responses and a decrease in strength of the associates as the ages of the children increased from 8 to 13. Comparisons with adult normative data are also provided. Results are interpreted as supporting evidence for developmental changes in knowledge organization.
They were told by their teachers that their task was to read each word in the booklet one by one and to write the first word that came to their minds in the blank space to the right.