BRIDGING THE SCHISM BETWEEN BEHAVIORAL AND COGNITIVE ANALYSES

A major schism in modern scientific psychology has occurred between be havior analysts and cognitive psychologists. The two groups speak in d ifferent languages, but the languages can be translated so that they a re mutually understandable; when either language is translated into th e other, similarities emerge from seeming differences. We draw an anal ogy between the basic units of behavior analysis (the operant and the establishing operation) and cognitive psychology (the production). We argue that both units describe behavior as a function of motivative an d discriminative antecedents. In addition, the two perspectives accoun t in analogous ways for ongoing changes in motivation and for control by verbal statements. Adherents of the two perspectives have experimen tally analyzed some of the same problems and fashioned similar solutio ns for applied problems. We conclude that many of the commonly cited d ifferences between the two perspectives are the result of misunderstan ding, and that the real differences need not preclude communication an d collaboration. The schism can be bridged.