Mapping cognitive structures and processes through verbal content: the thought-listing technique

Open-ended cognitive assessment techniques have helped illuminate the cognitive structures and processes underlying various clinical problems. The authors review a specific open-ended protocol analysis for assessing cognitive structures and processes--the thought-listing technique. They begin with a brief description of this technique and its validity, limitations, and potential clinical use. They then review representative research using the thought-listing technique in studies of psychopathology and psychotherapy. They conclude with a discussion of new and potentially useful methods (e.g., adjusted ratio of clustering scores, multidimensional scaling, implicit memory measures) for mapping cognitive representations and coping processes on the basis of data from thought listings in clinical and counseling psychology.