The “Psychological Reality” of American‐English Kinship Terms: An Information‐Processing Approach1

This research applies the information-processing theory of human thinking to an analysis of the psychological reality of American-English kinship terms. A general model in terms of cognitive structure and process is presented, its theoretical development closely tied to experimental testing. Two tasks involving the manipulation of terms of reference were administered to a sample chosen on the basis of subcultural affiliation; from the resulting data inferences are drawn about how kinship terms are structured in memory. Finally a classification of cognitive structure is presented and compared to the componential model of the componential analyst.