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article, examples are given of words that have come to what others do. W h e n we are asked, " W h a t did you do?",
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describe the feelings or states of mind that accompany " W h a t are you doing?", or " W h a t are you going to do?"
doing, sensing, wanting, waiting, thinking, and several we say, for example, "I wrote a letter,....I a m reading a
other attributes of mind. The bodily states felt or intro- good book," or "I shall watch television."But h o w can
spectively observed and described in these ways are the we describe what we feelor introspectivelyobserve at the
subject of physiology, especially brain science. time?
There is often very little to observe. Behavior often
seems spontaneous; it simply happens. We say it "occurs"
as in "It occurred to me to go for a walk." We often
replace "it" with "thought" or "idea" ("The thought--
W h a t is feltwhen one has a feelingis a condition of one's or idea--occurred to me to go for a walk"), but what, if
body, and the word used to describe it almost always anything, occurs is the walk. We also say that behavior
comes from the word for a cause of the condition felt. comes into our possession. We announce the happy ap-
The evidence is to be found in the history of the lan- pearance of the solution to a problem by saying "I
guage-in the etymology of the words that refer to feelings have it!"
(Skinner, 1987). Etymology is the archaeology of thought. We report an early stage of behaving when we say
The great authority in English is the Oxford English Dic- "I feel like going for a walk.'" That may mean "'I feel as
tionary (1928), but a smaller work such as Skeat's (1956) I have felt in the past when I have set out for a walk.'"
Etymological Dictionary of the English Language will What is felt may also include something of the present
usually suffice. We do not have all the facts we should occasion, as if to say "Under these conditions I often go
like to have, because the earliest meanings of many words for a walk," or it may include some state of deprivation
have been lost, but we have enough to make a plausible or aversive stimulation, as if to say "I need a breath of
general case. To describe great pain, for example, we say fresh air."
agony. The word first meant struggling or wrestling, a The bodily condition associated with a high prob-
familiar cause of great pain. When other things felt the ability that we shall do something is harder to pin down,
same way, the same word was used. and we resort to metaphor. Because things often fall in
A similar case is made here for the words we use to the direction in which they lean, we say we are inclined
refer to states of mind or cognitive processes. They almost to do something, or have an inclination to do it. If we are
always began as references either to some aspect of be- strongly inclined, we may even say we are bent on doing
havior or to the setting in which the behavior occurred. it. Because things also often move in the direction in
Only very slowly have they become the vocabulary of which they are pulled, we say that we tend to do things
something called mind. Experience is a good example. (from the Latin tendere, to stretch or extend) or that our
As Raymond Williams (1976) has pointed out, the word behavior expresses an intention, a cognitive process widely
was not used to refer to anything felt or introspectively favored by philosophers at the present time.
observed until the 19th century. Before that time, it We also use attitude to refer to probability. An at-
meant, quite literally, something a person had "'gone titude is the position, posture, or pose we take when we
through" (from the Latin expirirO, or what we would are about to do something. The pose of an actresssuggests
now call an exposure to contingencies of reinforcement. something of what she ~s engaged in doing or is likelyto
In this article, I review about 80 other words for states of do in a moment. The same sense of pose is found in
mind or cognitive processes. They are grouped according dispose and propose ("I a m disposed to go for a walk;"
to the bodily conditions that prevail when individuals are "I propose to go for a walk"). Originally a synonym of
doing things, sensing things, changing the way they do or propose, the word purpose has caused a great deal of
sense things (learning), staying changed (remembering), trouble. Like other words suggesting probable action, it
wanting, waiting, thinking, and "using their minds." seems to point to the future.The future cannot be acting
In order to respond effectively to the world around us, Learning is not doing; it is changing what we do. We may
we must see, hear, smell, taste, or feel it. The ways in see that behavior has changed, but we do not see the
which behavior is brought under control of stimuli can changing. We see reinforcing consequences but not how
be analyzed without too much trouble, but what we ob- they effect a change. Because the observable effects of
serve when we see ourselves seeing something is the source reinforcement are usually not immediate, we often over-
of great misunderstanding. We say we perceive the world look the connection. Behavior is then often said to grow
in the literal sense of taking it in (from the Latin per and or develop. Develop originally meant to unfold, as one
capere, to take). (Comprehend is a close synonym, part unfolds a letter. We assume that what we see was there
of which comes from prehendere, to seize or grasp.) We from the start. Like pre-Darwinian evolution (where to
say "I take your meaning.'" Because we cannot take in evolve meant to unroll as one unrolled a scroll), devel-
the world itself, it has been assumed that we must make opmentalism is a form of creationism.
a copy. Making a copy cannot be all there is to seeing, Copies or representations play an important part in
however, because we still have to see the copy. Copy theory cognitive theories of learning and memory, where they
involves an infinite regress. Some cognitive psychologists raise problems that do not arise in a behavioral analysis.
have tried to avoid it by saying that what is taken in is a When we must describe something that is no longer pres-
representation--perhaps a digital rather than an analog ent, the traditional view is that we recall the copy we have
copy. When we recall ("call up an image of") what we stored. In a behavioral analysis, contingencies of rein-
have seen, however, we see something that looks much forcement change the way we respond to stimuli. It is a
like what we saw in the first place, and that would be an changed person, not a memory, that has been "stored."
analog copy. Another way to avoid the regress is to say Storage and retrieval become much more compli-
that at some point we "interpret" the copy or represen- cated when we learn and recall how something is done.
tation. The origins of interpret are obscure, but the word It is easy to make copies of things we see, but how can
seems to have had some connection with price; an inter- we make copies of the things we do? We can model be-
preter was once a broker. Interpret seems to have meant havior for someone to imitate, but a model cannot be
evaluate. It can best be understood as something we do. stored. The traditional solution is to go digital. We say
The metaphor o f copy theory has obvious sources. the organism learns and stores rules. When, for example,
When things reinforce our looking at them, we continue a hungry rat presses a lever and receives food and the
to look. We keep a few such things near us so that we rate of pressing immediately increases, cognitive psy-
can look at them whenever we like. Ifwe cannot keep the chologists want to say that the rat has learned a rule. It
things themselves, we make copies o f them, such as now knows and can remember that "'pressing the lever
paintings or photographs. Image, a word for an internal produces food." But "pressing the lever produces food'"
copy, comes from the Latin imago. It first meant a colored is a description of the contingencies we have built into
bust, rather like a wax-work museum effigy. Later it meant the apparatus. We have no reason to suppose that the rat
ghost. E~gy, by the way, is well chosen as a word for a formulates and stores such a description. The contingen-
copy, because it first meant something constructed (from cies change the rat, which then survives as a changed rat.
the Latinfingere). There is no evidence, however, that we As members of a verbal species, we can describe contin-
construct anything when we see the world around us or gencies of reinforcement, and we often do so because the
when we see that we are seeing it. descriptions have many practical uses (for example, we
can memorize them and say them again whenever cir-
I thank EvalynSepal for many helpfulsuggestionsin the preparationof cumstances demand it), but there is no introspective or
this article.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to other evidence that we verbally describe every contingency
B. E Skinner, Department of Psychology,Harvard University,William that affects our behavior; indeed, there is much evidence
James Hall, 33 Kirkland St., Cambridge, MA 02138. to the contrary.
ensure that we can behave again as we are behaving now. "I am surprised!"
" N o , " said the doctor, " I am surprised; you are as-
Wanting tonished!" Astonished, like astounded, first meant to be
Many cognitive terms describe bodily states that arise alarmed by thunder. Compare the French ~tonner and
when strong behavior cannot be executed because a nec- tonnere.
essary condition is lacking. The source of a general word When we cannot easily do something because our
for states of that kind is obvious: When something is behavior has been mildly punished, we are embarrassed
wanting, we say we want it. In dictionary terms, to want or barred. Conflicting responses find us perplexed: They
is to "suffer from the want of." Suffer originally meant are "interwoven" or "entangled." When a response has
to undergo, but now it means to be in pain, and strong been inconsistently reinforced, we are di2~dent, in the
wanting can indeed be painful. We escape from it by doing sense of not trusting. Trust comes from a Teutonic root
anything that has been reinforced by the thing that is now suggesting consolation, which in turn has a distant Greek
wanting and wanted. relative meaning whole. Trust is bred by consistency.
A near synonym of want is need. It, too, was first
closely tied to suffering; to be in need was to be under
Waiting
restraint or duress. (Words tend to come into use when Wanting, wishing, worrying, resenting, and the like are
the conditions they describe are conspicuous.) Felt is often often called "feelings." More likely to be called "states
added: One has a felt need. We sometimes distinguish of mind" are the bodily conditions that result from certain
between want and need on the basis of the immediacy of special temporal arrangements of stimuli, responses, and
the consequence. Thus, we want something to eat, but reinforcers. The temporal arrangements are much easier
we need a taxi in order to do something that will have to analyze than the states of mind that are said to result.
later consequences. Watch is an example, it first meant "to be awake."
Wishing and hoping are also states of being unable The night watch was someone who stayed awake. The
to do something we are strongly inclined to do. The putted word alert comes from the Italian for a military watch.
golf ball rolls across the green, but we can only wish or We watch television until we fall asleep.
will it into the hole. (Wish is close to will. The Anglo- Those who are awake may be aware of what they
Saxon willan meant wish, and the would in "would that are doing; aware is close to wary or cautious. (Cautious
it were so" is almost the same as the past tense of will.) comes from a word familiar to us in caveat emptor.) Psy-
When something we need is missing, we say we miss chologists have been especially interested in awareness,
it. When we want something for a long time, we say we although they have generally used a synonym, conscious-
long for it. We long to see someone we love who has long ness.
been absent. One who watches may be waiting for something to
When past consequences have been aversive, we do happen, but waiting is more than watching. It is something
not hope, wish, or long for them. Instead, we worry or we all do but may not think of as a state of mind. Consider
feel anxious about them. Worry first meant choke (a dog waiting for a bus. Nothing we have ever done has made
worries the rat it has caught), and anxious comes from the bus arrive, but its arrival has reinforced many of the
another word for choke. We cannot do anything about things we do while waiting. For example, we stand where
things that have already happened, though we are still we have most often stood and look in the direction in
affected by them. We say we are sorry for a mistake we which we have most often looked when buses appeared.
have made. Sorry is a weak form of sore. As the slang Seeing a bus has also been strongly reinforced, and we
expression has it, we may be "sore about something." We may see one while we are waiting, either in the sense of
resent mistreatment, quite literally, by "feeling it again" "thinking what one would look like" or by mistaking a
(resent and sentiment share a root). truck for the bus.
Thinking
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apart.
It is widely believed that behavior analysts cannot deal 6. We mark things so that we will be more likely to
with the cognitive processes called thinking. We often use notice them again. Distinguish, a good cognitive term,
think to refer to weak behavior. I f we are not quite ready once meant to m a r k by pricking. Mark is strongly asso-
to say " H e is wrong," we say "I think he is wrong." Think ciated with boundaries; animals m a r k the edges of their
is often a weaker word for know; we say "I think this is territories.
the way to do it" when we are not quite ready to say "I 7. To define is literally to m a r k the bounds or end
know this is the way" or "This is the way." We also say (finis) of something. We also determine what a word
think when stronger behavior is not feasible. Thus, we means by indicating where the referent terminates.
think of what something looks like when it is not there 8. We compare things, literally, by putting them side
to see, and we think of doing something that we cannot by side so that we can more easily see whether they match.
at the m o m e n t do. The par in compare means equal. Par value is equal value.
Many thought processes, however, have nothing to In golf, par is a score to be matched.
do with the distinction between weak and strong behavior 9. We speculate about things in the sense of looking
or between private and public, overt and covert. To think at them from different angles, as in a specula or mirror.
is to do something that makes other behavior possible. 10. Cogitate, an old word for think, first meant to
Solving a problem is an example. A problem is a situation "shake up." A conjecture is something "thrown out" for
that does not evoke an effective response; we solve it by consideration. We accept or reject things that occur to us
changing the situation until a response occurs. Telephon- in the sense of taking or throwing them back, as if we
ing a friend is a problem if we do not know the number, were fishing.
and we solve it by looking up the number. Etymologically, 11. Sometimes it helps to change one mode of stim-
to solve is to loosen or set free, as sugar is dissolved in ulation into another. We do so when we convert the "heft"
coffee. This is the sense in which thinking is responsible of an object into its weight, read on a scale. By weighing
for doing. "It is how men think that determines how they things we react more precisely to their weight. Ponder,
act." Hence, the hegemony of mind. Again, however, the deliberate, and examine, good cognitive processes, all
terms we use began as references to behavior. Here are a once meant weigh. (Ponder is part of ponderous; the liber
few examples. in deliberate is the Latin libra, a scales; and examine
1. When no effective stimulus is available, we some- meant the tongue of a balance.)
times expose one. We discover things by uncovering them. 12. We react more precisely to the number of things
To detect a signal does not mean to respond to it; it means in a group by counting. One way to count is to recite one,
to remove something (the tegmen) that covers it. two, three, and so on, while ticking off (touching) each
2. When we cannot uncover a stimulus, we some- item. Before people learned to count, they recorded the
times keep an accessible one in view until a response number of things in a group by letting a pebble stand for
occurs. Observe and regard both come from words that each thing. The pebbles were called calculi and their use
meant to hold or keep in view, the latter from the French calculation. There is a long, but unbroken, road from
garder Consider once meant to look steadily at the stars pebbles to silicon chips.
until something could be made of them (consider and 13. After we have thought for some time, we may
sidereal have a c o m m o n root). Contemplate, another reach a decision. To decide once meant simply to cut off
word for think, once meant looking at a template or plan or bring to an end.
of the stars. (In those days all one could do to make sense 14. A better word for decide is conclude, to close a
of the stars was to look at them.) discussion. What we conclude about something is our
3. We not only look at things in order to see them last word.
better, but we also look for them. We search or explore. It is certainly no accident that so m a n y of the terms
the bodily conditions felt or introspectively observed have Often, however, " m i n d " means little more than
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grown accordingly, and with them has grown the vocab- "do." "I have a mind to tell you" means "I am inclined
ulary of cognitive thinking. to tell you." Those who "speak their mind" say what they
We could also say that weight becomes abstract when have to say. We are cautioned to avoid falling by "minding
we move from potatoes to evidence. The word is indeed the step" in the sense of noticing it. Students "mind their
abstracted in the sense of being drawn away from its orig- teachers" in the sense of obeying them, and teachers
inal referent, but it continues to refer to a common prop- "mind their students" in the sense of watching them. "Do
erty, and as in the case of metaphor, in a possibly more you mind my smoking?" means " D o you object?" In
decisive way. The testimony in a trial is much more com- reply to "Will you have a drink?", "I don't mind ifI do"
plex than a sack of potatoes, and "guilty" probably im- means "I won't refuse if you offer me one."
plies more than "10 pounds." But abstraction is not a The mind that the cognitive revolution has restored
matter of complexity. Quite the contrary. Weight is only to prominence is also the doer of things. It is the executor
one aspect of a potato, and guilt is only one aspect of a of cognitive processes. It perceives the world, organizes
person. Weight is as abstract as guilt. It is only under sense data into meaningful wholes, and processes infor-
verbal contingencies of reinforcement that we respond to mation. It is the double of the person whose mind it is,
single properties of a thing or person. In doing so, we a replica, a surrogate, a Doppelgdnger. Take any sentence
abstract the property from the thing or person. in which the mind does something and see if the meaning
One may still argue that at some point the term is is substantially changed if person is substituted. It is said,
abstracted and carried over, not to a slightly more complex for example, that "the mind cannot comprehend infinity."
case, but to something of a very different kind. Potatoes Does that mean anything more than that no person can
are weighed in the physical world; evidence is weighed in comprehend infinity? Cognitive processes are behavioral
the mind, or with the help of the mind, or by the mind. processes; they are things people do.
And that brings us to the heart of the matter. The crucial age-old mistake is the belief that they
are something more, that what we feel as we behave is
the cause of our behaving. From the time of the early
Mind Greeks, the search has been on for internal determiners.
The battle cry of the cognitive revolution is "Mind is The heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, spleen, not to mention
back!" A "great new science of mind" is born. Behav- the humours, and at last the brain have all been promising
iorism nearly destroyed our concern for it, but behavior- candidates. As organs, they have had the advantage that
ism has been overthrown, and we can take up again where they could be observed in a possibly more reliable way
the philosophers and early psychologists left off. in dead bodies, but philosophers were soon contending
Extraordinary things have certainly been said about that perceptions, feelings, intentions, and the like had an
the mind. The finest achievements of the species have independent existence. Unfortunately, we cannot report
been attributed to it; it is said to work at miraculous any internal event, physical or metaphysical, accurately.
speeds in miraculous ways. But what it is and what it The words we use we learned from people who did not
does are still far from clear. We all speak of the mind know precisely what we were talking about, and we have
with little or no hesitation, but we pause when asked for no sensory nerves going to the parts of the brain in which
a definition. The dictionaries are of no help. To under- the most important events presumably occur. Many cog-
stand what " m i n d " means, we must first look up percep- nitive psychologists recognize these limitations and dis-
tion, idea,feeling, intention, and many of the other words miss the words we have been examining as the language
we have just examined. We will find that each of them is o f " c o m m o n sense psychology." The mind that has made
defined with the help of the others. Perhaps it is of the its comeback is therefore not the mind of Locke or Berke-
very essence of mind that it cannot be defined. Neverthe- ley or Wundt or William James. We do not observe it;
people do, computer science will demonstrate how the Verbal contingencies of reinforcement explain why we
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