Impact and aftermath of the cognitive revolution. By the early 1960s the relevance of the Skinnerian approach for understanding complex mental processes was seriously questioned.
The linguist Noam Chomsky’s critical review of Skinner’s theory of “verbal behaviour” in 1959 showed that it could not properly account for human language acquisition. It was one of several triggers for a paradigm shift that by the mid-1960s became the “cognitive revolution,” which compellingly argued against behaviourism and led to the development of cognitive science. In conjunction with concurrent analyses and advances in areas from computer science and artificial intelligence to neuroscience, genetics, and applications of evolutionary theory, the scientific study of the mind and mental activity quickly became the foundation for much of the evolving new psychological science in the 21st century. Home. Is Psychology a Science?
What is science? According to BF Skinner (1980), ‘there is no place in a scientific study of behaviour for a mind or self’. But, pick up any A-level psychology text and it will be described as the study of mind and behaviour; often in the title. Burrhus Frederic Skinner.