COGNITIVE SWITCHING: A BEHAVIORAL TRACE OF HUMAN INFORMATION PROCESSING FOR TELEVISION NEWSCASTS

A theory of cognitive switching is presented which was developed from human performance literature and signaled stopping research. The purpose of the study was to validate the basic constructs of the theory and to present data which display behavioral traces of the ways people organize television news into their information-processing system during the actual reception of the messages. The findings suggest (1) that people cognitively switch for four basic reasons (functions) to: agree, disagree, think, and question; and (2) that people exhibit similar cognitive switching behaviors in similar information-processing situations, even though the content of the stimulus changes. Limitations of this type of research are discussed and implications for further study are suggested.     

THE LOGIC OF IDEAS AND THE LOGIC OF THINGS: A REPLY TO CHAPPELL

Abstract: A continuation of the debate over the intelligibility, and plausibility, of Yolton's reading of Locke's account of perception. Here, the issue turns on the de‐reification of ideas and its implications for the putative axioms of symmetry and transitivity governing the identity of ideas. The issue is illustrated by what Locke says about confused ideas.