Hi I'll try several other approaches to Michael's assertions.
1. Michael, what would you say to someone who claimed that "law of effect" (or any of other concepts on your list) originated in India, or Asia, or North America, or Cincinnati? 2. At least one of the effects you claim for Africa has been studied cross-culturally. Cole and Scribner (1974) studied the Kpelle in Liberia and reported no relation between serial position and memory (i.e., not primacy or recency effect). Wagner (1980) later reported that the primacy effect was stronger for schooled Moroccan children, implicating (as do many other studies) a role for formal education in primacy and related effects. What reports, anecdotal or anthropological or whatever, specifically mentions serial position effects being observed first in Africa? 3. The next one turned interesting. I vaguely remembered Skinner citing one of Aesop's fables for a basic concept (not sure if it was reinforcement or classical conditioning ... fox salivating comes to mind). I couldn't find it in a search of on-line fables attributed to Aesop, but did find some debate about Aesop's origins. If he existed (which is itself debated) he appears to have been a slave in ancient Greece who earned freedom due to his wit. One hypothesis is that he was in fact Ethiopian, based in part on his name and descriptions of his appearance (see http://www.answers.com/topic/aesop). But that is debated. further complicating things, Aesop's fables are generally not thought to have been written by Aesop, since many have earlier representations, for example, in Egyptian writings. And this connection would then lead to the considerable debate about whether Egypt is properly considered African, as claimed by Afrocentrism (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrocentrism). If a verified connection could be found between Aesop's fables and ancient African cultures, then we would certainly have evidence for a kind of precedence for a great many contemporary scholarly findings in psychology (even a glance at the morals attributed to Aesop's and other fables suggest a number of psychological phenomena ... see http://www.aesopfables.com/). But surely that would be true for many other cultures as well (I assume many ancient cultures with recorded documents would have aphorisms that would predate psychological findings). Furthermore, fables and other sayings often have contradictory forms, making it difficult to say that these early admonitions are on the same footing as contemporary psychological constructs. We would perhaps need to agree on some properties necessary to attribute scientific priority to something like "law of effect"? Take care Jim James M. Clark Professor of Psychology 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 18-Feb-07 1:23:38 PM >>> The following ideas originated in Africa: -Psychoanalytic theory -dream analysis(lalent and manifest) -Gestalt perceptual rules -social facilitation -social loafing -theories of multiple intelligences -doctrine of specific energies -law of effect -variable ratio schedule of reinforcemet -imprinting -primacy and recency effects -placebo effects -brain and mind connection More to come as we examine the African roots of Psychology and what they never told you in Psychology class. Michael Sylvester,PhD Daytona Beach,Florida - --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
