On objective and subjective anchoring of cognitive acts
how behavioural valence modifies reasoning schemata
pp. 285-301
in: Leendert Mos (ed), Recent trends in theoretical psychology, Berlin, Springer, 1988Abstract
The controversy between constructivistic and realistic views of human cognition can be reconciled by introducing the notion of the anchorage of cognitive acts. Objectively anchored cognitions serve to identify necessary conditions of outcomes and are therefore functional mainly for processing negative and non-intended occurrences, while subjectively anchored cognitions help to identify sufficient conditions of outcomes and are employed mostly to process positive and intended phenomena. Human deviations from normative models of rational judgment are the result of preoccupation with sufficiency at the expense of necessity and, hence, by the prevalence of subjectively over objectively anchored cognitions.