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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anecdotal cognitivism | 2/5 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdotal_cognitivism | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T16:11:55.592745+00:00 | kb-cron |
==== John B. Watson: (1878–1958) ==== Considered the founder of behaviourism, American psychologist John B. Watson studied animal psychology and was critical of introspective psychology and anecdotal cognitivism. He thought it inferior to objective, observable experiments and did not accept the experimental observer's behaviour could be influenced by the subjective experience. In 1909, at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine's Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Watson stated that "these trends away from introspection will lead psychology toward the perfection of technique of the physical sciences." Later, in 1913 he declared, "never use the term consciousness, mental state, mind, content, introspectively verifiable, imagery and the like...it can be done in terms of stimulus and response, in terms of habit formation, habit integrations and the like."
==== Jacques Loeb: (1859–1924) ==== Loeb, a mechanist physiologist, believed animal behaviour was of no particular purpose or design and could be explained in terms of environmental stimulus. He was known for attentive scientific research and as a founder to behaviourism. Thomas H. Leahey, professor emeritus of Virginia Commonwealth University noted that European physiologists of the early twentieth century including Loeb, "pronounced psychological concepts "superstitions" and found no room for animal consciousness in the explanation of animal behaviour."
==== E. L. Thorndikes: (1874–1949) ====
Both Edward Thorndike's puzzle boxes and PhD thesis, penned in 1898 at Columbia University, were modelled off previous work by Romanes and Morgan. Thorndike expected to assert similar connections to animal learning through imitation and passive tuition as his predecessors. As his extensive laboratory research and observations of cats and dog's ability to escape the boxes came to a close, he found that the research conclusions greatly differed to what he expected (that animals could learn from imitation). This was the beginning of his research into "motor impulse." Thorndike was highly critical of the 'anecdotalist school' and their lack of measurable and scientific methodologies. Thorndike later went on to study The Law of Effect and S-R bonds (Stimulus-Response) and contribute to educational psychology.
==== Burrhus Frederick Skinner: (1904–1990) ==== After WWII, B. F. Skinner's radical behaviourism gained popularity, he "applied [Auguste] Comte's vision to psychology" maintaining that science's goal was to ultimately control society with little need for introspection and maintained that mental processes were unobservable and illegitimate. His theory borrowed some of Darwin's evolutionary theory, though he believed human behaviour was explained through environment. Skinner was focused on a methodology of observation alone. According to Thomas H. Leahey, professor emeritus, Virginia Commonwealth University "Skinner believed that truth is to be found in observations themselves, in "does" and "doesn't" rather than in our interpretations of our observations."
== Non-Western approaches == Japan: Studies of Ethology in Japan have regularly used anthropomorphism and anecdotal methods, Japanese culture did not follow the rationalist American behaviourist approach. The cultural differences between the two countries underpin the different methods used to investigate animal behaviour in the academic disciplines. A reason scholars cite for this difference is Japan's spiritual foundation of animism in Shintoism and Buddhism, where animate and inanimate objects have spirits.
== Current discussions == Within Classic Ethology, Darwin's anecdotal and anthropomorphic approach was modified by European researchers. Classical Ethologists, Konrad Lorenz (1903–1989) and Niko Tinbergen (1907–1988), undertook a return to Darwin's evolutionary theory and natural history with a reliance on more meticulous anecdotal and anthropomorphic methodologies. The research carried out by both scientists focused on observations, free use of anecdotes and an emphasis on emotion and inner states, "instincts", "drives", "motivational impulses" and "outward flowing nervous energy". In 1973 they were awarded the Nobel Prize with Karl von Frisch (1886–1982) for animal behaviour and were the founders of the field of ethology.
Though there are many differences between the schools of behaviourism and ethology, they agreed upon scepticism of the "folk" interpretations of over emphasising anecdotes to explain animal intelligence. There has been a resurgence in the adaption and use of this method in the twenty-first century. In current research this methodology has evolved and is no longer called 'anecdotal cognitivism,' with the scientific vernacular having changed to 'cognitive ethology' a term coined by Don Griffin, which involves anecdotal and anthropomorphic observations with reference to the cognition, internal states and behaviour analysis of animals. Ethograms, a quantitative method consisting of an inventory table of descriptions, are used to document typical animal behaviour. In unusual or rare animal behaviour, an "incident" or "qualitative report" is written rather than referencing the term "anecdote", due to the negative connotation that resulted from Darwin's method.
== Current theorists' support ==