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Is talking to yourself thinking?

Howard Rachlin1

  • 1Stony Brook University.

Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
|August 5, 2017
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Radical behaviorism suggests talking to yourself is thinking, viewing it as private behavior. Teleological behaviorism, however, defines thinking as overt actions, thus excluding self-talk.

Keywords:
mindradical behaviorismspeechtalking to yourselfteleological behaviorismthinking

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Behavioral Science
  • Philosophy of Mind

Background:

  • The relationship between self-talk and the cognitive process of thinking is a complex topic.
  • Behaviorism offers distinct frameworks for understanding mental events and their relation to observable actions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the question of whether talking to oneself constitutes thinking.
  • To analyze this question through the lenses of radical behaviorism and teleological behaviorism.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of philosophical viewpoints on behaviorism, specifically referencing Skinner's work (1945, 1938).
  • Distinguishing between private and overt behavior within behavioral frameworks.
  • Defining 'thinking' according to the principles of both radical and teleological behaviorism.

Main Results:

  • Radical behaviorism, aligning with Skinner (1945), can equate self-talk with thinking as a form of private, internal behavior.
  • This perspective necessitates that private behavior, or thinking, is identical to covert muscular speech movements.
  • Teleological behaviorism, following Skinner (1938), defines 'thinking' as extended patterns of overt behavior, thereby excluding covert self-talk.

Conclusions:

  • Radical behaviorism permits the identification of self-talk with thinking, conceptualizing it as private behavior.
  • Teleological behaviorism, by contrast, does not consider covert self-talk as thinking because thinking is defined as overt behavior.