Epistemological barriers to radical behaviorism.
Students carry hidden ‘mind-first’ habits that make behaviorism feel wrong—call them out early.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Pilowsky et al. (1998) asked why students keep rejecting radical behaviorism.
They used Bachelard’s idea of ‘epistemological barriers’—deep habits of thought that block new science.
The paper is conceptual, not an experiment. It maps everyday ‘folk psychology’ (mind talk, free-will talk) as the main wall students hit.
What they found
Folk-psychology beliefs act like tinted glasses. Once on, they make behaviorism look wrong or cruel.
Until you name and remove those glasses, students default to cognitive stories and keep rating them ‘more scientific.’
How this fits with other research
Cole (1994) showed the same fix: inspect the words you use. Both papers say philosophical housekeeping clears conceptual fog.
Normand et al. (2022) seems to disagree. Their survey found ABA jargon did NOT lower parent acceptance. Folk psychology, not jargon, is the real gatekeeper. The studies differ in method—one tests words on paper, the other probes hidden beliefs—so the clash is only skin-deep.
Graber et al. (2023) and Gingles (2022) extend the idea. They treat resistance to ABA as cultural, not just cognitive. T et al. give the classroom tool; these later papers apply it to autistic and Black communities.
Why it matters
If you teach RBTs, supervise students, or explain plans to parents, start by surfacing their ‘common-sense’ mind talk. Ask, ‘What does this word mean to you?’ Then contrast it with an environmental description. Five minutes spent dismantling folk psychology saves hours of later confusion and boosts buy-in.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The historian and philosopher of science Gaston Bachelard proposed the concept of epistemological barriers to describe the intellectual challenges encountered by scientists in their work. In order to embrace novel ways of approaching a problem in science, scientists must overcome barriers or obstacles posed by their prior views. For example, Einsteinian physics presents scientists with claims that space is curved and that time and space are on the same continuum. We utilize Bachelard's concept of epistemological barriers to describe the differences between the intellectual journeys students pursuing advanced studies face when attempting to accept cognitive psychology or radical behaviorism. We contend that the folk psychological beliefs that students typically hold when entering these studies pose less challenge to cognitive psychology than to radical behaviorism. We also suggest that these barriers may also partly be involved in the problematic exegesis that has plagued radical behaviorism. In close, we offer some suggestions for dealing with these epistemological barriers.
The Behavior analyst, 1998 · doi:10.1007/BF03391970