Here is a "wordle" I created based on the entire text of John Dewey's 1896 article, "The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology," first published in /Psychological Review, 3/, 357-370 (voted by psychologists the most influential article in the first 50 years of /Psych Rev/). http://wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/170520/Dewey-reflex
As you can see, a wordle takes a body of text, counts the words used, jumbles them up, and prints the one that occur most frequently in the largest font. Perhaps not surprisingly, terms like "stimulus," "response," and "sensation," are among the most common in Dewey's reflex arc article and, thus, are the largest. Perhaps more interestingly, another very common word is "coordination," a term that Dewey frequently used where most others who shared his philosophical background would have used "synthesis." "Coordination" enabled him to express his Hegelian training, while simultaneously covering his tracks. Here's another wordle based on B. F. Skinner's 1950 article, "Are Theories of Learning Necessary?", first published in /Psychological Review, 57/, 193-216. http://wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/170551/Skinner-theories The differences in the vocabularies used by Skinner and Dewey are quite striking (if not altogether surprising). I wonder if this kind of visual representation would be useful for teaching purposes. You can make your own by clicking on the "Create" button. Thanks for my honours student, Frank Sayre, for showing me the Wordle website. Chris -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ ========================== --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
