M. Mccloskey et P. Macaruso, ARCHITECTURE OF COGNITIVE NUMERICAL PROCESSING MECHANISMS - CONTRASTING PERSPECTIVES ON THEORY DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION, Cahiers de psychologie cognitive, 13(3), 1994, pp. 275-295
This article discusses two alternative approaches to theory developmen
t and evaluation in the domain of numerical processing. Taking as an e
xample a recent study of a brain-damaged patient with deficits in nume
rical processing (Macaruso, McCloskey, & Aliminosa, 1993), we contrast
the approach taken by our colleagues and ourselves (e.g., McCloskey e
t al., 1985; McCloskey, 1992) with that adopted by Campbell and Clark
(1988, 1992; Campbell, this issue; Clark & Campbell, 1991). We suggest
that whereas the modular model proposed by our colleagues and ourselv
es represents an attempt to develop a model sufficiently constrained a
nd explicit to generate specific testable predictions, Campbell and Cl
ark's encoding complex approach is unconstrained and inexplicit, and d
oes not constitute a specific theory that is subject to empirical test
.