Toward a richer view of the scientific method: The role of conceptual analysis.

Machado, Armando; Silva, Francisco J.

doi:10.1037/0003-066x.62.7.671

Cited by 114 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…From the perspective adopted here, to ask the question of what it means for an infant to look at an object is to delve into the realm of philosophical inquiry and is not simply a matter of empirical inquiry [Machado & Silva, 2007]. A sustained defense of this thesis is beyond the scope of the present work, so we can only provide the barest outlines of its consequences here.…”

Section: Conceptual Issues In Infant Preference Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…What is needed to resolve such a debate is a conceptual clarification of the properties being ascribed to infants. Thus, in this paper we adopt a method of conceptual analysis to resolve these questions [Machado & Silva, 2007]. This method involves comparing different uses of a term to see what use(s) a researcher has in mind.…”

Section: Conceptual Issues In Infant Preference Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our objective is to perform a conceptual analysis of terms such as preference and surprise as they have been applied to infant looking time studies [see e.g., Machado & Silva, 2007]. In order to do this, we first present an overview of the history of the infant looking paradigm and outline the basic assumptions of the CK account, along with some of the major criticism it has received.…”

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confidence: 99%

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An Analysis of the Conceptual Foundations of the Infant Preferential Looking Paradigm

Tafreshi¹,

Thompson²,

Racine³

2014

Human Development

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The core knowledge (CK) account of human development ascribes higher-order cognition to infants on the basis of looking time measures. In this paper, we investigate the conceptual foundations of this account through an examination of the preferential looking paradigm. We focus on the use of this paradigm in social cognitive and morality research, which involves ascriptions of expectation, surprise, preference, belief understanding, and moral judgment to infant looking behavior. We compare CK researchers' usage of these terms with everyday usage, and conclude that the application of belief and morality to infant looking behavior is overzealous. Based on these considerations, we argue that a developmental systems approach may provide a more appropriate theoretical framework for studying the development of such capacities.

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Section: Conceptual Issues In Infant Preference Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conceptual Issues In Infant Preference Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Analysis of the Conceptual Foundations of the Infant Preferential Looking Paradigm

Tafreshi¹,

Thompson²,

Racine³

2014

Human Development

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“…Third-and more generally-given the distinctions between self-enhancement levels, one should take care not to equivocate between them simply because an umbrella term exists. Conceptual clarity is as crucial to the scientific enterprise as methodological rigor (Machado & Silva, 2007).…”

Section: Levels Of Self-enhancementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Enhancement: Food for Thought

Sedikides¹,

Gregg

2008

Perspect Psychol Sci

673

467

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ABSTRACT-Self-enhancement denotes a class of psychological phenomena that involve taking a tendentiously positive view of oneself. We distinguish between four levels of self-enhancement-an observed effect, an ongoing process, a personality trait, and an underlying motiveand then use these distinctions to organize the wealth of relevant research. Furthermore, to render these distinctions intuitive, we draw an extended analogy between selfenhancement and the phenomenon of eating. Among the topics we address are (a) manifestations of self-enhancement, both obvious and subtle, and rival interpretations; (b) experimentally documented dynamics of affirming and threatening the ego; and (c) primacy of self-enhancement, considered alongside other intrapsychic phenomena, and across different cultures. Self-enhancement, like eating, is a fundamental part of human nature.Many thinkers have remarked that human beings hold an excessively flattering view of themselves and of things associated with the self.

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“…Challenging Staddon's (1977) arguments at most clears the ground for alternate accounts. The next section examines the categories "adjunctive," "operant," and "conditioning," since such conceptual analysis is the necessary foundation for a new construction (Machado & Silva, 2007 …”

Section: Contiguity Versus Proximitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Adjunctive behaviors are operants

Killeen

Pellón

2013

Learn Behav

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Adjunctive behaviors such as scheduleinduced polydipsia are said to be induced by periodic delivery of incentives, but not reinforced by them. That standard treatment assumes that contingency is necessary for conditioning and that delay of reinforcement gradients are very steep. The arguments and evidence for this position are reviewed and rejected. In their place, data are presented that imply different gradients for different classes of responses. Proximity between response and reinforcer, rather than contingency or contiguity, is offered as a key principle of association. These conceptions organize a wide variety of observations and provide the rudiments for a more general theory of conditioning.Keywords Adjunctive . Conditioning . Contingency . Contiguity . Proximity . Schedule inducedResponse acquisition with delayed reinforcement is a robust phenomenon that may not depend on a mechanically defined response or an immediate external stimulus change to mediate the temporal gap between response and reinforcer. Critchfield and Lattal (1993, p. 373) Schedule-induced drinking as the prototypical adjunctive behavior: Arguments against reinforcement Ever since the laboratory discovery of adjunctive behavioralso known as schedule-induced or interim behavior-by John Falk (1961), analysts have treated these anomalies as belonging to a separate class of behavior, induced by incentives such as periodic food, but not reinforced by them. The discovery of adjunctive behavior was a bombshell in the behavioral community, since it seemed an exception to the orderly account of all behavior subsumed under the tripartite hegemony of operant, respondent, and unconditioned responses. What were the implications for the Skinnerian project of applied behavior analysis, if so substantial a proportion of the behavior that was induced by reinforcement was adamant to control by reinforcement? In the case of schedule-induced polydipsia, Falk (1971) voiced the contemporary amazement:It was an outright absurd [finding]. It was absurd because food deprivation in rats yields a decrease in water intake, not an increase. It was absurd because heating a large quantity of room-temperature water to body heat and expelling it as copious urine is wasteful for an animal already pressed for energy stores by food deprivation. It is absurd for an animal to drink itself into a dilutional hyponatremia bordering on water intoxication. But perhaps most absurd was not the lack of a metabolic or patho-regulatory reason for the polydipsia, but the lack of an acceptable behavioral account. (p. 577) Falk detailed the arguments against various "acceptable behavioral accounts," which he summarized in the following: "Polydipsia is not the result of food delivery directly or adventitiously reinforcing water intake. Nor does it serve a problem-solving mediational, or timing function. Furthermore, drinking is not an unconditioned

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Toward a richer view of the scientific method: The role of conceptual analysis.

Cited by 114 publications

References 39 publications

An Analysis of the Conceptual Foundations of the Infant Preferential Looking Paradigm

An Analysis of the Conceptual Foundations of the Infant Preferential Looking Paradigm

Self-Enhancement: Food for Thought

Adjunctive behaviors are operants

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