Towards Constructing an Integrated Model for the Cognitive System: Revisiting Semantic Networks
Towards Constructing an Integrated Model for the Cognitive System: Revisiting Semantic Networks

Summary/Abstract: Integrative approaches try to relate different constructs in different theories and reinterpret them within a common conceptual framework. In this paper, an integrative framework for cognitive constructs is modelled, proposed and evaluated, using the concept of processing levels. Cognitive processing is divided into feature-based, semantic, and conceptual levels, based on the volume of information used to represent a stimulus. To quantitatively evaluate the structure of this model, 47 participants with impaired valance systems were selected from psychological clinics in Mashhad according to the convenience sampling method. The functioning of the participants’ cognitive networks was assessed by the Beck Depression Inventory II, the Semantic Distance Task, the Verbal Fluency Test, the Computerized Dot Probe, the Stroop Test, the Implicit Association Test, and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. The proposed structural model was formed by using tests scores as predictor variables and levels of processing as mediating variables. The research data were analysed through the PLS Structural Equation Model and the exploratory approach. The best fitted model with a normative fit index of 0.92 confirmed the three-level data clustering hypothesis. Path coefficients between feature-oriented and semantic levels and for semantic and conceptual levels obtained = 0:38 and = 0:46 respectively. In previous studies, interpretations of both the Implicit Association Test and the Verbal Fluency Test were controversial. Using the notion of processing levels, these variations have been reinterpreted.

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