Explain how Noam Chomsky's work on language acquisition changed the field of cognitive psychology. Do you agree or disagree with his ideas? Explain your answer.
What will be an ideal response?
Student examples will vary. A sample answer follows.
Before Noam Chomsky published his work on language acquisition in 1959, behaviorism dominated the field of cognitive psychology. One of the most important behaviorists, B. F. Skinner, suggested that children develop language by imitating their parents and then being rewarded or punished by the parents. Chomsky disagreed, pointing out that children are able to speak sentences that they have never heard before. According to Chomsky, language comes from capabilities that we have within us, not from external rewards or punishments.
I agree with Chomsky's ideas, but I believe that behaviorism remains the foundation of cognitive psychology. Theories are important, but without experimentation, we would have theories that had few results to back them up.
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