Is talking to yourself thinking?

Abstract

The question whether talking to yourself is thinking is considered from two viewpoints: radical behaviorism and teleological behaviorism. For radical behaviorism, following Skinner (1945), mental events such as 'thinking' may be explained in terms of private behavior occurring within the body, ordinarily unobservable by other people; thus, radical behaviorism may identify talking to yourself with thinking. However, to be consistent with its basic principles, radical behaviorism must hold that private behavior, hence thinking, is identical with covert muscular, speech movements (rather than proprioception of those movements). For teleological behaviorism, following Skinner (1938), all mental terms, including 'thinking,' stand for abstract, temporally extended patterns of overt behavior. Thus, for teleological behaviorism, talking to yourself, covert by definition, cannot be thinking.

Problem-solving, bidirectional naming, and the development of verbal repertoires.

“…The steps between the instruction and the selection are referred as mediating behaviors (e.g., Miguel, 2016; Osnes, Stokes, & Guevremont, 1988), where the sense of mediating here implies bridging a temporal gap by supplying additional discriminative stimulation, in this case verbal. Although some behavior analysts advise against taking verbal mediation into account (e.g., Rachlin, 2017), it would seem that each component in the task analysis of solving a problem is necessary when attempting to teach this skill to those who lack it.…”

“…Even though some behaviorists may not be completely comfortable with studying variables that cannot be directly observed (e.g., Baum, 2011; Rachlin, 2017), Skinner was never concerned with the inaccessibility of mental events, but rather with their explanatory status; “the objection of the inner workings of the mind is not that they are not open to inspection but they have stood in the way of the inspection of more important things” (Skinner, 1974, p. 165). For Skinner, “the distinction between public and private is by no means the same as that between physical and mental.” (Skinner, 1945, p. 285).…”

Prolegomena to any future philosophy of behavior analysis as a science

“…In his review of essential features of the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle and others from a behavioral standpoint (Rachlin, 1994), were you prepared for the argument that Plato's parable of the cave did not imply that Plato was a dualist? And were you ready for the conclusion that a partner might have better reasons for saying “You love me” than for saying “I love you” (Rachlin, 2018)?…”

What Can We Learn by Treating Perspective Taking as Problem Solving?

“…We can also generate discriminative stimuli by thinking; these generated stimuli may evoke additional precurrent behavior or the solution to the problem itself. Thinking is operant behavior and can be analyzed as such (Moore, 2015), but access to the relevant behavior presents some additional challenges, in particular when it is private (see Hayes, 1986;Moore, 2000;Rachlin, 2018). When solving problems, private verbal behavior (a common form of thinking) can serve as precurrent behavior that facilitates production of the solution to the problem.…”