Dialogues on the psychology of language and thought : conversations with Noam Chomsky, Charles Osgood, Jean Piaget, Ulric Neisser, and Marcel Kinsbourne

"The scope and variety of interest areas identified with psyƯ cholinguistic research have grown enormously during the last decade or two. Although this recent flourishing has brought a great deal of new knowledge and interdisciplinary cooperation to the field, it has also brought its share of controversy and confusion as conƯ flicting views on a number of important topics are hotly debated by their proponents. It is for this reason that we have put together this book, a collection of interviews with a number of leading scholars within the field, all of whom differ--sometimes widely-Ư in their respective points of view. The idea of using a uniform set of questions as points of deƯ parture for each interview seemed to us a choice method for proƯ viding readers with a better understanding .of the complexities of the field. The questions we have chosen to work with are crucial questions for psycho linguistics since they form the framework for knowledge and research within the field. It is our hope that by offering several different points of view on psycholinguistic reƯ search, this volume will provide readers with a better sense of the similarities and differences of opinion within these different points of view. We would like to extend our thanks to the various contributors to this book for their cooperation and patience during the preparaƯ tion of this book, and to the publishers for their steady encourƯ agement during our work"--Font no determinada The scope and variety of interest areas identified with psy­cholinguistic research have grown enormously during the last decade or two. Although this recent flourishing has brought a great deal of new knowledge and interdisciplinary cooperation to the field, it has also brought its share of controversy and confusion as con­ flicting views on a number of important topics are hotly debated by their proponents. It is for this reason that we have put together this book, a collection of interviews with a number of leading scholars within the field, all of whom differ - sometimes widely -­ in their respective points of view. The idea of using a uniform set of questions as points of de­ parture for each interview seemed to us a choice method for pro­viding readers with a better understanding of the complexities of the field. The questions we have chosen to work with are crucial questions for psycholinguistics since they form the framework for knowledge and research within the field. It is our hope that by offering several different points of view on psycholinguistic re­search, this volume will provide readers with a better sense of the similarities and differences of opinion within these different points of view. We would like to extend our thanks to the various contributors to this book for their cooperation and patience during the prepara­tion of this book, and to the publishers for their steady encour­agement during our work. Front Matter....Pages i-vii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 An Overview of the Controversial Issues in the Psychology of Language and Thought....Pages 3-26 Front Matter....Pages 27-27 Noam Chomsky’s Views on the Psychology of Language and Thought....Pages 29-63 Charles Osgood’s Views on the Psychology of Language and Thought....Pages 65-102 Jean Piaget’s Views on the Psychology of Language and Thought....Pages 103-120 Ulric Neisser’s Views on the Psychology of Language and Thought....Pages 121-141 Marcel Kinsbourne’s Views on the Psychology of Language and Thought....Pages 143-164 Back Matter....Pages 165-166