In psychology associations are relations between conceptual entities. They are relationships between objects, feelings and ideas. The human brain is composed of a large neural network; this network is a basis out of which multiple models of memory function have been proposed. Memory appears to be structured as an associative network that serves the purpose of informing about relationships between different things.
Associations are important in brain function. Memory operates as a conceptual chain: concepts, words and ideas are interlinked. Relations exist between objects, such as a person’s face, and the name associated with the face. Understanding of relationships between different items is fundamental to episodic memory and damage to the hippocampal region of the brain has been found to hinder learning of associations between objects.
Classical conditioning entails learning through associations. In Pavlov’s famous experiment, he coincided feeding a dog, with the sounds of a bell….