People Planning by a Fixed Resource Method

Abstract

Results are presented from a new method to determine a person's conception of complex stimuli. In three related experiments Ss expressed their views of ideal organisms by distributing a fixed resource among hypothetical properties of the ideal. The results from the experiments were highly correlated, lending weight to the reliability and generality of the approach. Cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling were used to group the properties in two dimensions, while the mean amount allocated to a property was represented in the third dimension. A three-dimensional plot was constructed for each of four ideals: the only organism on earth, a member of the only species on earth, an organism going into outer space, and an organism coming to earth from outer space.