"Associative" refers to a type of relationship or connection between different concepts, ideas, or objects. In psychology, it often describes how the mind links one thought or memory to another, allowing for the recall of related information. For example, when you think of summer, you might also think of beaches or vacations due to their associated experiences. In mathematics, "associative" describes a property of certain operations, such as addition and multiplication. This means that when performing these operations, the grouping of numbers does not affect the final result. For instance, in addition, (2 + 3) + 4 equals 2 + (3 + 4), both yielding 9.