A Behavioristic Analysis of Perception and Language as Cognitive Phenomena

Psychologists, when they are behaving like psychologists, limit themselves to observing what goes into the organism (stimuli) and what comes out (responses). Between these two observation points lies a Great Unknown, the nervous system. Nowadays it is fashionable to refer to this region as “a little black box.” In any case, psychological theory, as distinct from psychological observation, is made up of hunches about what goes on in this little black box. Theories of hearing and color vision, principles of association, generalization, and reinforcement, notions about cohesive forces between like processes in a visual field—all imply certain conceptions about how the nervous system works. If these conceptions are made explicit, as Hebb has done, for example, one is said to “neurologize,” but, explicit or not, psychological theories select from among neurophysiological alternatives.