In the following two sections of this paper, we will give a brief sketch of some models of attitude representation and discuss how these models may serve as theoretical grounds for the design of attitude scales. Afterwards, we will relate these considerations to the case of attitudes toward the computer and describe the construction of an instrument for the content-specific assessment of attitudes toward the computer. The design of this questionnaire is based on assumptions following the topical approach to attitude representation (Tourangeau. 1987. 1992) and the notion of a bipolar structure of attitude representation (Pratkanis. 1989). The third section reports the results of two studies that provide empirical evidence for the diagnostic usefulness of these assumptions. In the final section, some implications for the design of instruments for the assessment of cognition-based attitudes are discussed.