The encoding and processing components of moral judgment-making responses were investigated by using a "thinking aloud" response mode to Rest's Defining Issues Test (DIT) of moral judgment. Three subject groups were asked to "think aloud" as they took the DIT: (1) 30 male and female graduate students from a philosophy department of a large university (mean age was 28.5 years); (2) 29 male and female ninth grade students; and (3) 16 male seminary students of a conservative, fundamentalist theological college (mean age was 27.4 years). Dimensions of moral judgment-making were investigated in the verbal protocols and in auxiliary tests of comprehension and evaluation of DIT items. Propositions expressed by the subjects were classified as cognitive operations used to (1) understand stimuli; (2) identify facts and issues; (3) weigh alternatives, and (4) apply moral criteria to the story dilemmas. Objective and "thinking aloud" responses differentiated groups. The philosophers obtained higher objective scores and used more complex cognitive procedures and principled moral criteria. The 15-year-olds and seminarians had lower objective scores and used less complex cognitive operations and non-principled moral criteria. Moral judgment responses were shown to be multi-dimensional and analyzable for cognitive and moral component propositions. (Author/SS)