On the use of word association norms in aging research

The word associations of young, middle-aged, and older adults were compared to cohort matched normative word associations. Cohort differences in most common response were observed for a subset of stimulus words which did not have strong primary responses in the norms. For those stimulus words assumed to be free of cohort differences, there were no significant differences between the three age groups in amount of agreement with the normative responses. It is concluded that standard word association norms are as reliable for older individuals as for the young provided that words with strong associates are selected.