The ability to explain the occurrence of errors in children's speech is an essential component of successful theories of language acquisition. The present study tested some generativist and constructivist predictions about error on the questions produced by ten English-learning children between 2 and 5 years of age. The analyses demonstrated that,…

Answering the preceding article by Schank and Wilensky, the authors state that their previous article (EJ 161 384, Cognition, December 1976), suggested that the goals of artificial intelligence research are technological, not scientific. They also claim that the existence of a moderately successful program does not constitute a test of its…

In response to Roger Brown's memorial tribute to Eric Lenneberg, (Cognition, June, 1976), the author disagrees with Brown's conclusion that a Whorfian interpretation of both Lenneberg's and his own results regarding the problem of codability and the recognition of colors, is no longer valid. (Author/MV)

The author accepts some of the technical comments in Dresher and Hornstein's article on artificial intelligence (AI), (EJ 161 384, Cognition, December 1976), but disagrees with several other comments. Although Dresher and Hornstein unquestioningly adopt Noam Chomsky's paradigm for the study of language, their real point is that AI researchers are…

Brown addresses Schonbach's criticism (previous article) of Brown's tribute to Lenneberg (Cognition, June 1976). Brown reviews various research on codability, recognition, and memory of color names; and encourages the development of new generalizations. Although Whorfian hypotheses are appropriate for studying semantic differences, they have not…

The authors respond to Dresher and Hornstein's article (EJ 161 384, Cognition, December, 1976) on artificial intelligence (AI). The dispute between linguistic theorists and AI researchers is based upon their different aims; while AI researchers develop programs capable of intelligent behavior, transformational linguists study the characteristics…