ABSTRACT
The world is networked. So is the human mind. Consider the following two cases. During the 2008 presidential election, some people made an association between Barack Obama's racial identity and his intention to care about people of color, whereas his opponents questioned the connection (e.g., Harris, 2011). A New York Times poll in 2010 showed that more than two-thirds of respondents said illegal immigrants weakened the economy, whereas others argued that a struggling economy needs immigrants (Campo-Flores, 2010). As these two cases illustrate, in our brains are numerous associative networks composed of interconnected objects, such as the economy and immigration, and attributes, such as political candidates' background and their willingness to care about people. The question is how these networks are built in our minds.
