Abstract

Skinner has assigned the persistence of cognitive explanations to the literature of freedom and dignity. This view is challenged especially as it applies to behavioral scientists. It is argued that cognitive explanations persist (a) because current behaviorism does not challenge cognitive epistomology; (b) because behavior analysts have failed to provide research evidence at the level of human behavior, and finally (c) because a science of behavior based solely on op?rant principles is necessarily incomplete. The implications of these problems for behavior analysis are addressed