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This study aims to investigate cognitive structure of primary education pre-service teachers regarding social studies and social sciences. 3rd grade primary education pre-service teachers who were taking the course of Social Studies Education in Primary School Teacher Education Program at the Education Faculty of Anadolu University in the spring 2012-2013 participated in this survey model designed study. In this study, word association test was used as a data collection tool to reveal the cognitive structure of primary school teacher candidates. Cut-off points were figured out in light of information about how many different answers were given and how many times these answers were used for which key concepts. Cutoff points used to prepare the concept maps. According to results of the study, it is seen that pre-service teachers mostly repeated "citizenship" for social studies, and "History" for social sciences. Also, History, skills, society-socialization, values, social participation, Geography and culture were given for both of two concepts. It can be claimed that pre-service teachers have much more conceptual information about social studies, and much more misconception about social sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]