Verbal Behavior: The other reviews

Knapp, Terry J.

doi:10.1007/bf03392877

Cited by 33 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…No child forms a fully functional grammar based on exposure to 50,000 exemplars from an extremely narrow set of inputs, and then differentially reinforced for correct responses. This was an idea long ago put forward by Skinner ( 1957 ), and soundly taken apart by Chomsky ( 1959b ). This is not to say, however, that the spontaneous looking time method is without serious flaws: e.g., the method only enables a small difference in conditions that may be biologically insignificant (i.e., differences of 1–2 s in looking time between conditions can give a statistically significant result); because studies of animals use small populations, it is not possible to test the variety of alternative explanations.…”

Section: Recursion In Human and Non-human Animalsmentioning

confidence: 96%

On recursion

Watumull

Hauser²,

Roberts

et al. 2014

Front. Psychol.

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It is a truism that conceptual understanding of a hypothesis is required for its empirical investigation. However, the concept of recursion as articulated in the context of linguistic analysis has been perennially confused. Nowhere has this been more evident than in attempts to critique and extend Hauseretal's. (2002) articulation. These authors put forward the hypothesis that what is uniquely human and unique to the faculty of language—the faculty of language in the narrow sense (FLN)—is a recursive system that generates and maps syntactic objects to conceptual-intentional and sensory-motor systems. This thesis was based on the standard mathematical definition of recursion as understood by Gödel and Turing, and yet has commonly been interpreted in other ways, most notably and incorrectly as a thesis about the capacity for syntactic embedding. As we explain, the recursiveness of a function is defined independent of such output, whether infinite or finite, embedded or unembedded—existent or non-existent. And to the extent that embedding is a sufficient, though not necessary, diagnostic of recursion, it has not been established that the apparent restriction on embedding in some languages is of any theoretical import. Misunderstanding of these facts has generated research that is often irrelevant to the FLN thesis as well as to other theories of language competence that focus on its generative power of expression. This essay is an attempt to bring conceptual clarity to such discussions as well as to future empirical investigations by explaining three criterial properties of recursion: computability (i.e., rules in intension rather than lists in extension); definition by induction (i.e., rules strongly generative of structure); and mathematical induction (i.e., rules for the principled—and potentially unbounded—expansion of strongly generated structure). By these necessary and sufficient criteria, the grammars of all natural languages are recursive.

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Section: Recursion In Human and Non-human Animalsmentioning

confidence: 96%

On recursion

Watumull

Hauser²,

Roberts

et al. 2014

Front. Psychol.

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“…Today, along similar lines, eliminative materialists such as Churchland and Churchland ( 1998 ) and Dennett ( 1992 ) deny beliefs are anything more than folk-psychological explanations (this phrase is intended to be mildly derisive) of complex neurological events (Bickle et al, 2010 ). The weakness of this formulation is what originally lead to the cognitive revolution, as exemplified, for example, by Chomsky's ( 1959 ) critique of Skinner's ( 1957/1991 ) Verbal Behavior . Behavior does not, however, occur in a vacuum.…”

Section: Some Relevant Considerations About Beliefmentioning

confidence: 99%

A non-linear dynamical approach to belief revision in cognitive behavioral therapy

Kronemyer

Bystritsky

2014

Front. Comput. Neurosci.

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Belief revision is the key change mechanism underlying the psychological intervention known as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). It both motivates and reinforces new behavior. In this review we analyze and apply a novel approach to this process based on AGM theory of belief revision, named after its proponents, Carlos Alchourrón, Peter Gärdenfors and David Makinson. AGM is a set-theoretical model. We reconceptualize it as describing a non-linear, dynamical system that occurs within a semantic space, which can be represented as a phase plane comprising all of the brain's attentional, cognitive, affective and physiological resources. Triggering events, such as anxiety-producing or depressing situations in the real world, or their imaginal equivalents, mobilize these assets so they converge on an equilibrium point. A preference function then evaluates and integrates evidentiary data associated with individual beliefs, selecting some of them and comprising them into a belief set, which is a metastable state. Belief sets evolve in time from one metastable state to another. In the phase space, this evolution creates a heteroclinic channel. AGM regulates this process and characterizes the outcome at each equilibrium point. Its objective is to define the necessary and sufficient conditions for belief revision by simultaneously minimizing the set of new beliefs that have to be adopted, and the set of old beliefs that have to be discarded or reformulated. Using AGM, belief revision can be modeled using three (and only three) fundamental syntactical operations performed on belief sets, which are expansion; revision; and contraction. Expansion is like adding a new belief without changing any old ones. Revision is like adding a new belief and changing old, inconsistent ones. Contraction is like changing an old belief without adding any new ones. We provide operationalized examples of this process in action.

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“…There have also been reactions pointing to other aspects of the issue. Knapp (1992), for instance, showed that the influence of Chomsky's critique resulted in a neglect of other reviews of Skinner's (1957) book, which were more positive, even though critical. Others have tried to show the vitality of Skinner's views by the increasing number of sales and references to Verbal Behavior , dismissing the idea that it was refuted (Schlinger, 2008).…”

Section: Reactions From the Behaviorist Sidementioning

confidence: 99%

On Behaviorism in the Cognitive Revolution: Myth and Reactions

Watrin

Darwich

2012

Review of General Psychology

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For a long time, psychology was a discipline devoted to the study of mind. Behaviorism represented a rupture in that tradition, redefining psychology as the study of behavior. The rupture, however, would not have been everlasting. When the cognitive revolution broke out in the 1950s, the study of mental life was renewed in the form of cognitivism. Since then, it is usually told that the cognitive revolution displaced behaviorism, causing the latter's decline or even its death. Nonetheless, at that same time, behaviorism saw the growth of behavior analysis, which remained until today as a living behaviorist field. This article analyzes how behaviorism is depicted in the story of the cognitive revolution, as well as some of the reactions that portrayal generated within behavior analysis. It is argued that the story of the cognitive revolution affirms the importance of cognitivism and consolidates its historical identity but fosters the movement at the expense of behaviorism's depiction. At the same time, behavior analysts’ reactions often contradict the revolution's story and, consequently, offer an alternative but disarticulated version of history. As a result, each side tells a different story, and the case would be illustrative of how such kind of stories can favor one position while distorting some notions.

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Verbal Behavior: The other reviews

Cited by 33 publications

References 21 publications

On recursion

On recursion

A non-linear dynamical approach to belief revision in cognitive behavioral therapy

On Behaviorism in the Cognitive Revolution: Myth and Reactions

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