An experiment was performed to test two hypotheses derived, respectively, from an activation model and Festinger's dissonance model: (a) induced dissonance and consonance will result in comparable amounts of cognitive activity defined in terms of amount of verbalization by Ss and (b) dissonance will result in more cognitive activity than consonance. Results did not give unequivocal support to either hypothesis. It was argued that the notion of uncertainty from information theory best explains the results and other cognitive data which do not fit into the two models. The implications of the concept of “psychic constancy” and its relation to creativity variables were also discussed.
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