Detecting Response-Outcome Relations: Toward an Understanding of the Causal Texture of the Environment

E.A Wasserman

doi:10.1016/S0079-7421(08)60051-1

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Detecting Response-Outcome Relations: Toward an Understanding of the Causal Texture of the Environment

Book chapter

Peer reviewed

Detecting Response-Outcome Relations: Toward an Understanding of the Causal Texture of the Environment

E.A Wasserman

Psychology of Learning and Motivation, pp.27-82

Elsevier Science & Technology

1990

DOI: 10.1016/S0079-7421(08)60051-1

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Abstract

This chapter discusses that experimental psychology is no longer a unified field of scholarship. The most obvious sign of disintegration is the division of the Journal of Experimental Psychology into specialized periodicals. Many forces propel this fractionation. First, the explosion of interest in many small spheres of inquiry has made it extremely difficult for an individual to master more than one. Second, the recent popularity of interdisciplinary research has lured many workers away from the central issues of experimental psychology. Third, there is a growing division between researchers of human and animal behavior; this division has been primarily driven by contemporary cognitive psychologists, who see little reason to refer to the behavior of animals or to inquire into the generality of behavioral principles. The chapter considers the study of causal perception. This area is certainly at the core of experimental psychology. Although recent research in animal cognition has taken the tack of bringing human paradigms into the animal laboratory, the experimental research is described has adopted the reverse strategy of bringing animal paradigms into the human laboratory. A further unfortunate fact is that today's experimental psychologists are receiving little or no training in the history and philosophy of psychology. This neglected aspect means that investigations of a problem area are often undertaken without a full understanding of the analytical issues that would help guide empirical inquiry.

Details

Title: Subtitle: Detecting Response-Outcome Relations: Toward an Understanding of the Causal Texture of the Environment
Creators: E.A Wasserman
Resource Type: Book chapter
Publication Details: Psychology of Learning and Motivation, pp.27-82
Publisher: Elsevier Science & Technology
DOI: 10.1016/S0079-7421(08)60051-1
eISSN: 1557-802X
ISSN: 0079-7421
Language: English
Date published: 1990
Academic Unit: Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
Record Identifier: 9984070499102771

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