Author’s response. Better not to yell “URA” too fast
In this response to the comments made on my opinion article entitled “Associations are all we need”, I underline three points that characterize the theoretical stance I propose to adopt. First of all, I will argue that brandishing the scarecrow of reductionism is inappropriate, as this criticism does not really reach the Hebbian project, which is rather to find an intermediate and functional position between mentalist psychology and radical reductionism. Secondly, I will emphasize that the Hebbian project provides interesting conceptual keys to improving our understanding of chunking mechanisms, a central notion in current models of statistical learning. Thirdly, I will argue that the Hebbian theoretical framework has the potential to provide a broader conceptual tool for unifying currently disjointed fields of psychology.
- Reductionism
- chunking
- unification