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Chomsky 's Influence On Cognitive Psychology

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Noam Chomsky, linguist, played an important role in cognitive psychology. Chomsky had reviewed and critiqued B. F. Skinner’s published materials regarding behaviorism (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014; Qiang, Yongyong, Yongquan, 2013). He criticized Skinner for leaving out an important aspect of language (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). Chomsky explained that when language is produced our brain is abiding by rules that are stored in memory (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). This led to the development of cognitive psychology and Chomsky’s theory regarding language (Qiang, Yongyong, Yongquan, 2013). Chomsky believed that language was a good example as to how the cognitive process works within individuals (Grider, 1993). In order to fully understand language, Chomsky looked at production and perception of language (Grider, 1993; Mayer, 1981).
It was important to him to analyze what played a role in the production and perception of language (Grider, 1993; Mayer, 1981). Chomsky believed that structures in our brain helps us be able to comprehend different sentence structures that make sense (Grider, 1993). Those structures were thought to be “surface structures and deep structures” (Grider, 1993; Hayes, 1970). Surface structures were thought to deal with the grammar of a sentence (Grider, 1993). Deep structures looked at the meaning of the sentence (Grider, 1993). Chomsky thought that grammar occurs on three different levels (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). These levels were

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