The Nature and Methodological Implications of the Cognitive Representation of Products

A general relationship is proposed wherein more abstract attributes are likely to resemble continuous dimensions while more concrete attributes are likely to resemble dichotomous features. While some methodologies assume dimensional representations, others assume feature-based representations. This suggests that dimensional methods may better capture abstract product representations while feature-based methods may better capture concrete representations. The results of two studies that support both the general relationship and its methodological implications are reported.