Conclusion
In setting a framework for the papers that follow, I have explored some of the major characteristics of disciplines and the factors that breed ethnocentrism among disciplines, considered what factors can lead researchers to cross disciplinary boundaries, and explored the kinds of conceptual as well as social and institutional products that result from cross-disciplinary work. While drawing out the significance of these various considerations for psycholinguistics, I have presented a fairly general conceptual analysis that is not restricted to this case. The following papers consider in much more detail the particular features of the historical and current endeavors in developing psycholinguistics.
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I am most grateful to Adele Abrahamsen, Rita Anderson, Lindley Darden, Steve Fuller and Robert McCauley; all of whom have made very helpful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. I am also grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities, which not only made possible the conference from which this symposium is drawn but also has supported the research on which this introduction is based.
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Bechtel, W. Psycholinguistics as a case of cross-disciplinary research: Symposium introduction. Synthese 72, 293–311 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00413748
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00413748