The role of affirmations and negations in the balancing process of cognitive structures

Abstract

This study examines the role of affirmations and negations in possible forms of cognitive equilibration, emphasising the primacy of the former over the latter. Cognitive equilibrium is first characterised in terms of the reciprocal conservations observable at the three levels of any adaptive process, thereby justifying the individual’s need to establish an exact correspondence between affirmations and negations in order to achieve coherent stability in thought. These affirmations and negations are then analysed within the three levels of cognitive equilibration. Finally, it is shown that affirmations play a predominant role over negations both at the level of sensorimotor action and in the early stages of conceptualisation, with the latter becoming systematic at the operational stages and thus attaining the same hierarchical status as the former.