Dialogues on the Psychology of Language and Thought

The scope and variety of interest areas identified with psy- cholinguistic research have grown enormously during the last decade or two. Although this recent flourishing has brought a great deal of new knowledge and interdisciplinary cooperation to the field, it has also brought its share of controversy and confusion as con- flicting views on a number of important topics are hotly debated by their proponents. It is for this reason that we have put together this book, a collection of interviews with a number of leading scholars within the field, all of whom differ--sometimes widely-- in their respective points of view. The idea of using a uniform set of questions as points of de- parture for each interview seemed to us a choice method for pro- viding readers with a better understanding .of the complexities of the field. The questions we have chosen to work with are crucial questions for psycho linguistics since they form the framework for knowledge and research within the field. It is our hope that by offering several different points of view on psycholinguistic re- search, this volume will provide readers with a better sense of the similarities and differences of opinion within these different points of view. We would like to extend our thanks to the various contributors to this book for their cooperation and patience during the prepara- tion of this book, and to the publishers for their steady encour- agement during our work.

The scope and variety of interest areas identified with psy- cholinguistic research have grown enormously during the last decade or two. Although this recent flourishing has brought a great deal of new knowledge and interdisciplinary cooperation to the field, it has also brought its share of controversy and confusion as con- flicting views on a number of important topics are hotly debated by their proponents. It is for this reason that we have put together this book, a collection of interviews with a number of leading scholars within the field, all of whom differ--sometimes widely-- in their respective points of view. The idea of using a uniform set of questions as points of de- parture for each interview seemed to us a choice method for pro- viding readers with a better understanding .of the complexities of the field. The questions we have chosen to work with are crucial questions for psycho linguistics since they form the framework for knowledge and research within the field. It is our hope that by offering several different points of view on psycholinguistic re- search, this volume will provide readers with a better sense of the similarities and differences of opinion within these different points of view. We would like to extend our thanks to the various contributors to this book for their cooperation and patience during the prepara- tion of this book, and to the publishers for their steady encour- agement during our work.