There is no Convincing Evidence for Operant or Classical Conditioning in adult Humans

Abstract

This chapter argues that conditioning in human subjects is produced through the operation of higher mental processes, rather than vice versa. The individuals most responsible for this chapter are Kenneth Spence and Noam Chomsky. Spence forced me to read, as a graduate student, some fair fraction of the primary literature on conditioning. (The University of Iowa’s copies of the Journal of Experimental Psychologyare literally yellow with graduate student sweat.) Chomsky’s insights about language and the nature of psychology have helped me to question the traditional paradigm in psychology and thus question such fundamentals as the existence of conditioning in human beings. Chomsky was also the specific cause of this chapter since it began with a lecture he gave at the University of Illinois on April 1, 1971. Chomsky made a statement to the effect that behavioristic psychology could account for simple behavior, but could not handle more complex behavior. As I sat listening in the audience, I wondered if he was being sufficiently radical. It was fashionable in 1971 to say that Chomsky was outdated; so, to avoid appearing merely fashionable, I set out to do the massive reanalysis of the conditioning literature required to support my speculation that behavioristic psychology could not explain even simple behavior.

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