ABSTRACT
The main theories to be discussed here mirror those that were described in chapter 3 or theories of thinking. As before, we have S-R theories, including both Skinner's 'pure' behaviourism and the mediation theories of the neo-behaviourists. Turning to more cogpitive explanations I shall argue that the information theory approach to language has something in common with the Gestalt theory approach to thinking. They are both concerned with the overall structure of cognitive and linguistic behaviour but are weaker when it comes to detailing the processes by which those structures come about and undergo change. Finally, Chomsky's theory of ttansformational grammar is a ruled-based theory which, like Newell and Simon's problemsolving model, is designed to be expressed in a sufficiendy explicit form for a computer to be instructed to simulate human language behaviour.
