Cognitive psychology's ambiguities: Some suggested remedies

Points out that one of cognitive psychology's greatest handicaps has been the ambiguity of many of its concepts. One consequence has been less-than-adequate communication among experimental investigators. The new, common view that emphasizes information processing has offered a basis for the solution to this problem. The author's definition of intelligence and structure-of-intellect model offer, for general use, a systematic collection of rigorously and operationally defined concepts. New evidence is presented for the discriminability of the categories of that model and of their combinations, recognizing the 3 facets of all intellectual functions--operation, content, and product. Some novel views of memory and of association are suggested, with mention of other points on psychological theory. Implications are suggested for future research, bivariate as well as multivariate. (20 ref)