  The reigning experimental paradigms in mid-20th century American psychology were for the most part variants of Behaviorism. B.F. Skinner’s behaviorist account of language acquisition and use (Skinner 1957) in many ways marks the end of this dominance—or at least the beginning of the end—because it was the target of a very influential attack by Chomsky (1959). This attack convinced many of the inherent limits of behaviorist theorizing (see Cowie 2010 for details).