STRUCTURE OF NATURAL COGNITIONS

Defined the following structural properties by reference to a simple model of cognition about a particular domain of events: dimensionality, attribute articulation, attribute centrality, evaluative centrality, centralization, image comparability, affective-evaluative consistency, affective balance, and image ambivalence. Multiple measures of most of these structural properties were developed for several cognitive domains by procedures that are applicable to other domains as well. Within each of 4 domains tested, affective balance and affective-evaluative consistency appeared to be compatible modes of integration; both tended to be incompatible with high dimensionality of the cognitive space and with an ambivalent view of objects in it. Information about a domain was associated with increased dimensionality. Personal maladjustment among undergraduates was associated with relatively nonevaluative but relatively ambivalent conceptions of self and others. Schizophrenic patients were more likely than surgical patients to display relatively nonevaluative, relatively ambivalent conceptions of others. (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.