The task-oriented approach in psychology: a solution to Fodor's problem

It is proposed that studying individual tasks in isolation is a solution to Fodor’s problem: how can we break down the empirical project in psychology into tractable units? The taskoriented approach is in this sense an alternative to the modular view of the mind. I propose a definition of a task as a researcher-defined unit of study that corresponds to a reconfiguration of resources in an animal-enviroment system; this reconfiguration: is meaningful to a perceiver-actor; is amenable to precise characterization; specifies criteria for succesful completion of the task; and provides a guide to researchers on how to generalize empirical conclusions drawn from the study of a given phenomenon. The task-oriented approach is well-suited to the study of certain phenomena that the standard brainoriented approach struggles to characterize, such as collaborative activity. Framing the dichotomy between the approaches in terms of methodology allows us to avoid fruitless ontological discussions about external content.