Levels of Organization in Formal and Informal Events

Abstract

Subjects found similarities among seven levels of organization within two formal and two informal collections of human events. Levels of organization included body-parts, movement, behavior, anion, disposition, relationship, and grouping. Similarity-difference judgments were made within sets of three event-descriptions combining adjacent levels of organization. With comparisons involving higher levels, subjects were less likely to select the higher of two intended similarities. Subjects also showed a preference for similarities based on action. Female, better educated, and nonathletic subjects were relatively more likely to select the higher of adjacent-level similarities. Decreases in the likelihood of finding the higher similarities across higher and higher-level comparisons were monotonic for informal events but nonmonotonic for formal events; on the average, subjects were less likely to find the higher-level similarities in comparisons drawn from formal events. Results are discussed in terms of changes in ability to differentiate levels of organization across different, but multi-leveled kinds of events.