In cognitive science, association by contiguity is the principle that ideas, memories, and experiences are linked when one is frequently experienced with the other.
Thus, an apple may prime a memory of a rose through the common property of red.
[1] This is shown in a graph of conditional-response probability as a function of lag as originated by Dr. Michael Kahana.
[2] Changes in temporal contiguity in human subjects can be an indicator of mild cognitive impairment or an early stage of Alzheimer's disease,[3] an observation that is assumed to be explained by the mechanism that the hippocampus and the entorhinal cortex generates sequences.
Edwin Ray Guthrie's contiguity theory deals with patterned movements.