An overview of the controversial issues in the psychology of language and thought

This article is an overview of the most important controversial issues in the field of psycholinguistics. Seven questions were posed in a dialogue interview to each of the following distinguished scholars in the field: Noam Chomsky, Charles Osgood, Jean Piaget, Ulrich Neisser, and Marcel Kinsbourne. The authors have provided a critical discussion of the issues as well as a summary of the different points of view of each of the above mentioned individuals. The complete dialogues will be published together in a forthcoming book entitledDialogues in the Psychology of Language and Thought.This paper was originally written in collaboration with G. Voyat for and will appear as the introduction of a forthcoming book entitledDialogues in the Psychology of Language and Thought, R. W. Rieber, ed. (Plenum, New York, 1981). The reader should consult the above-mentioned book for a complete picture of the dialogues discussed in this paper.