and Lepper (1996) noted that in thinking about cognitive dissonance in terms of parallel constraint satisfaction processes, it becomes clear that cognitive consistency phenomena—such as those studied by dissonance researchers—are not the result of atypical or unusual cognitive processes but rather are the direct result of normal cognitive functioning. See also Cognitive dissonance is the original concept of the theory. Self-perception theory is a competing theory of attitude change. References External links Article on Connectionism, parallel constraint satisfaction processes, and gestalt principles Article on Constraint satisfaction modeling of cognitive dissonance phenomena Computational neuroscience