Don't shoot the giant whose shoulders we are standing on

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Science
• Psycholinguistics
• Linguistics

Background:

• Structural priming is a phenomenon where exposure to a particular structure influences the likelihood of using that structure again.
• The debate exists on whether structural priming is sufficient proof for the existence of mental representations.
• Cognitive science often infers the existence of unobservable mental representations and processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To critically evaluate the role of structural priming in establishing the existence of cognitive representations.
• To discuss the epistemological standards for inferring mental representations in cognitive science.
• To highlight the methodological interdependence within psycholinguistics.

Main Methods:

• The study reviews theoretical arguments regarding structural priming and representational evidence.
• It examines the philosophical underpinnings of scientific inference in cognitive science.
• It discusses the reliance on complementary methodologies, such as acceptability judgments, in psycholinguistic research.

Main Results:

• Structural priming is a sufficient, but not a necessary, condition for inferring representations.
• The absence of evidence for representations through priming does not equate to evidence of their absence.
• Cognitive science and psycholinguistics employ a range of methods, acknowledging that not all components can be directly proven.

Conclusions:

• The existence of cognitive representations can be inferred even without direct proof from structural priming.
• Cognitive science principles allow for the positing of theoretical constructs based on converging evidence.
• Psycholinguistics integrates structural priming with other methods, like acceptability judgments, for robust experimental design and interpretation.