A GRAPH-THEORY MODEL OF THE SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF ATTITUDES

The semantic structure underlying the attitudes of pretreatment and po sttreatment drug addicts was modeled using a network analysis of free word associations. Measures of graph theoretic properties were used to assess structural differences in the associative networks of the two populations. These measures modeled the information processes of assoc iative networks proposed in the spreading activation theory of semanti c processing. As expected based on graph theory, the structure of the associative networks of post-treatment subjects was more dense, less c onstrained, and more hierarchically organized by the self concept. In a test of the network model, the subjects' evaluations of concepts in the associative network were found to be a function of their evaluatio ns of semantically similar concepts. Although preliminary and limited, the results suggest that graph theory may provide a broad mathematica l foundation for diverse models of cognitive systems.