Intermediate Enrichment (p. 119): Forgetting about forgetting is a tough thing to do because most of us have grown up assuming, without question, that forgetting is a real process that occurs, and a process that we all understand very well. Then along comes Malott telling us to forget forgetting; There's no such thing.
Read this section carefully. "Forget" and other forms of that word are very useful and maybe even necessary for efficient communication in our everyday lives. But among us behavior analysts, we must understand that it's at best a verbal label for a set of processes that are understandable through the principles we're learning. "Forgetting" can never be an adequate explanation for the effects on performance that we use the word to label. It's incorrigibly circular:
Why didn't Johnny do what I told him?
Because he forgot.
Why do you say he forgot?
Because he didn't do what you told him.
What's mentalism? You'll read some in-depth discussion of it when we get to Ch. 26, which is one of the online chapters.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Phooey on mentalism!
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Principles of Behavior: Ch. 06
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I teach courses in the principles and applications of Behavior Analysis, the science and technology of behavior, which is different from other approaches in psychology in that it takes behavior as a subject matter in its own right, rather than as a tool for studying something else, such as the mind. The main purpose of this blog is to be a supplementary means of communication with students who are taking my courses.
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