Osgood's (1980) Naturalness Principle as applied to stative cognition was examined in a picture-phrase matching task. Phrases and pictures were presented successively under two conditions: i.e., picture-first and picture-last conditions. Congruent and incongruent phrases were used, with the former being consistent with a naturally perceived figure-ground relation and the latter being inconsistent with it. Subjects were timed as they judged whether the pictures matched or did not match the phrases. It was found that when pictures were viewed before phrases, there was a shorter RT for congruent phrases than for incongruent ones. There was no differences in RTs, however, when pictures were viewed after the presentation of the phrases. These results are in accord with Osgood's Naturalness Principle.