Shira Baror

Abstract Human experience intertwines continuity, the seamless flow of events, with segmentation, the spontaneous partitioning of experience into discrete units. Despite their cognitive significance, it is unclear whether these processes operate independently or share a common mechanism.

Associative activation is commonly assumed to rely on associative strength, such that if A is strongly associated with B, B is activated whenever A is activated. We challenged this assumption by examining whether the activation of associations is state dependent. In three experiments, subjects performed a free-association task while the level of a simultaneous load was manipulated in various ways.