Definition of "associative" []

• Of, characterized by, resulting from, or causing association. (adjective)
• Mathematics Independent of the grouping of elements. For example, if a + (b + c) = (a + b) + c, the operation indicated by + is associative. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In the rat cortex, long-term associative memories vanished rapidly after local application of an inhibitor of the protein kinase C isoform, protein kinase M zeta PKMzeta."
• "Sometimes they centered themselves in the present moment, which is called associative thinking."
• "It is as if what are sometimes called the associative fibers, both ends of which are in the brain, were dwarfed in comparison with the afferent and efferent fibers that mediate sense and motion."