Comparative analysis of the associative fields of the word-stimulus of EDUCATION

The article is devoted to the comparison of associative fields, which differ in the time of fixation and by obtaining associative material. To compare the content of the associative fields, EDUCATION took an associative field from the Dictionary of Associative Definitions of Nouns of the Ukrainian Language in 1989, which was formed as a result of a chain associative experiment and an associative field obtained by a free associative experiment in 2007 and 2021. The results of the comparison showed that the core of associative value remained unchanged. The connotative fragment is represented to a greater extent by positively colored reactions in the two associative fields. In both associative fields EDUCATION is thought of primarily as higher with a repetition rate of 33. In the associative field stimulus EDUCATION, which we find in the dictionary, the most frequent reaction is also higher, but with a frequency of 184 times, which reveals the prestige of higher education among Ukrainians. In the associative field we find reactions with a negative value — insufficient (frequency 8), bad, dangerous, low, funny, poor. Instead, most reactions contain a positive assessment of good (6), high, sufficient, impressive, good, qualified, strong, necessary. In the associative field of 2007, evaluative reactions are presented much less often and exclusively of positive content (best, mind 4, grade). In our opinion, a large number of evaluative reactions in the associative field of 1989 is explained by the research method chosen by the researcher to collect associative material, namely to provide a definition of the proposed stimulus. "Types of education" and "Emotional vector" became similar vectors for both associative fields. Lexical associations are a certain concentration of mental, cultural, textual and other knowledge. The reactions detected by free and chain experiments testify to the values and opinions of the language community during the experiment. When comparing associative fields, one can observe the dynamics of changes in the conceptual system of society, because during life a person rethinks or receives new information that affects the nature of the association. The results of a free associative experiment can help to design and improve curricula for higher education students and take their interests into account. The results of the comparison of associative fields show first of all the coincidence of nuclear tokens in the structure of the word meaning. In the future, conducting psycholinguistic experiments with the word-stimulus EDUCATION will help to improve educational programs, to identify relevant knowledge for the implementation of educational initiatives. This is the perspective of our study. The influence of communication technologies on language consciousness in the educational environment. Therefore, we also consider it relevant to conduct research to compare the results of experiments conducted in the form of online and offline.