Cognitive differentiation and the acquisition of connotative meanings

The effect of cognitive structure upon discriminatory behavior has been the focus of an increasingly large body of research. One approach to the study of cognitive styles has involved the relationship of cognitive structures to that of the judgment process. A complexity-simplicity conceptualization of cognitive system discriminatory behavior has been initiated by Bieri (1955). Cognitive-complexity, an information processing variable, is one of many cognitive factors in judgment. Emphasis on this one structural variable in the midst of other cognitive factors is convenient in that a judge's cognitive structure can be analyzed in the same terms that the judgmental task can be described.