A group of 24 Ss produced associates continuously for 4 min. to each of 4 stimulus words. Although a negative exponential function described the relationship between cumulative association production and time permitted for association quite well for group data, examination of individual association rates showed periods of rapid response bursting intermingled within periods of slower response. An examination of the specific associates contained in these fast sequences showed them to be more highly interconnected in terms of associative overlap, and more highly congruent in terms of connotative meaning than the associates contained in slow sequences. Associative overlap was measured by a matrix analysis of the total number of potential interconnections existing among the words in the fast and slow sequences, while connotative congruence was measured through distance scores computed on the semantic-differential ratings of these words. The results indicated that alternations in overt association rate may be attributed to the existence of associative clusters which are composed of a group of strongly interconnected words, each of which evokes essentially similar meaning responses. (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)