{{Infobox academic | name = Martin D. S. Braine | image = Martin D.S. Braine.jpg | workplaces = {{Plainlist| * University of California, Santa Barbara * New York University }} | alma_mater = {{Plainlist| * Birmingham University {{Small|(BS)}} * University of London {{Small|(BS)}} * New York University {{Small|(PhD)}} }} | awards = Guggenheim Fellow (1965) | spouse =Lila Braine |birth_date={{Birth date|1926|06|03}}|death_date={{Death date and age|1996|04|06|1926|06|03}}|children=2|birth_place=Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia|death_place=New York, New York, US|discipline=Psychologist|sub_discipline=Language development}}
'''Martin Dimond Stewart Braine''' (June 3, 1926 – April 6, 1996) was a cognitive psychologist known for his research on the development of language and reasoning.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/15/nyregion/martin-braine-69-cognitive-psychologist.html|title=Martin Braine, 69, Cognitive Psychologist|date=1996-04-15|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-03-26|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> He was Professor of Psychology at New York University at the time of his death.
Braine was well known for his research on mental logic.''<ref name=":0" />'' He theorized that people naturally make deductive inferences based on their knowledge of natural language terms like ''if,'' ''all'', ''any'', and ''not.'' Such terms are understood through an intuitive logic that supports commonsense reasoning, but may also produce reasoning fallacies or errors.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Rumain|first1=Barbara|last2=Connell|first2=Jeffrey|last3=Braine|first3=Martin D.|date=1983|title=Conversational comprehension processes are responsible for reasoning fallacies in children as well as adults: If is not the biconditional.|journal=Developmental Psychology|language=en|volume=19|issue=4|pages=471–481|doi=10.1037/0012-1649.19.4.471|issn=0012-1649}}</ref> This natural mental logic was viewed as distinct from the standard logic of mathematicians and philosophers in terms of the inferences it licensed.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Braine|first=Martin D.|date=1978|title=On the relation between the natural logic of reasoning and standard logic.|journal=Psychological Review|language=en|volume=85|issue=1|pages=1–21|doi=10.1037/0033-295X.85.1.1|issn=0033-295X}}</ref> In contrast to Philip Johnson-Laird and others who suggested that people rely on mental models as opposed to logic when reasoning,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Mental models : towards a cognitive science of language, inference, and consciousness|last=Johnson-Laird, P. N. (Philip Nicholas), 1936-|date=1983|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0674568815|location=Cambridge, Mass.|oclc=9685856}}</ref> Braine took the position that people rely on both mental logic and mental models, with the former closely tied to processes of linguistic comprehension.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Braine|first1=Martin D.|last2=O'Brien|first2=David P.|date=1991|title=A theory of if: A lexical entry, reasoning program, and pragmatic principles.|journal=Psychological Review|language=en|volume=98|issue=2|pages=182–203|doi=10.1037/0033-295X.98.2.182|issn=1939-1471}}</ref>
Braine edited the volumes ''Categories and Processes in Language Acquisition'' by Yonata Levy and Izchak Schlesinger,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Categories and processes in language acquisition|date=1988|publisher=L. Erlbaum Associates|others=Levy, Yonata., Schlesinger, I. M., Braine, Martin D. S.|isbn=978-0805801514|location=Hillsdale, N.J.|oclc=17619700|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/categoriesproces0000unse}}</ref> and ''Mental Logic'' with David O'Brien.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Mental logic|date=1998|publisher=L. Erlbaum Associates|others=Braine, Martin D. S., O'Brien, David P.|isbn=978-0585176697|location=Mahwah, N.J.|oclc=45728656}}</ref>
== Biography == Braine was born in Kuala Lumpur on June 3, 1926.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=O'Brien|first1=David P.|last2=Bowerman|first2=Melissa|date=1998|title=Martin D. S. Braine (1926–1996): Obituary.|journal=American Psychologist|language=en|volume=53|issue=5|pages=563|doi=10.1037/0003-066X.53.5.563|issn=1935-990X|hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-000F-8523-C|hdl-access=free}}</ref> He was the son of Edith Braine, a teacher, and Charles Dimond Conway Braine, a civil engineer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2017/03/27/obituary-david-braine-leading-catholic-philosopher-who-battled-disability/|title=Obituary: David Braine, leading Catholic philosopher who battled disability|date=2017-03-27|website=Catholic Herald|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-05-22}}</ref> His younger brother was the British philosopher David Dimond Conway Braine.
Braine received his B.S. degree in mechanical engineering in 1946 at University of Birmingham in England.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1946|title=List of Members of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers with Year of Election 1946|journal=Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers|language=en|volume=154|issue=1|pages=140–143|doi=10.1243/PIME_PROC_1946_154_023_02|issn=0020-3483|doi-access=free}}</ref> He subsequently attended the University of London where he received a B.S. in psychology. In London he attended lectures by Jean Piaget, which influenced his later research on the development of logical reasoning.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Braine, M. D. S.|date=1959|title=The ontogeny of certain logical operations: Piaget's formulation examined by nonverbal methods.|journal=Psychological Monographs: General and Applied|volume=73(5, Whole No. 475), 43}}</ref>
Braine continued his education at New York University where he received his Ph.D. in psychology in 1957 under the supervision of Elsa Robinson.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://neurotree.org/beta/tree.php?pid=18262|title=Neurotree - Martin Braine Family Tree|website=neurotree.org|access-date=2019-05-19}}</ref> Braine worked at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and later at Walker Reed Army Medical Center as a researcher before joining the faculty of the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1965.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/martin-d-s-braine/|title=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation {{!}} Martin D. S. Braine|language=en-US|access-date=2019-05-19}}</ref> Braine moved to New York University in 1971 where he remained for the duration of his career.<ref name=":0" />
Braine married Lila (Rosensveig) Ghent in 1960. Lila Braine was a professor of psychology at Barnard College, Columbia University. They had a son Jonathan in 1961 and a daughter Naomi in 1964.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.feministvoices.com/lila-braine/|title=Lila Braine|website=Psychology's Feminist Voices|access-date=2019-05-09}}</ref> Braine died of cancer in New York City on April 6, 1996.<ref name=":0" />
== Research on Language Development == Braine conducted research on child language development and engaged in the empiricism-nativism debate.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Braine|first=Martin D. S.|date=1994|title=Is nativism sufficient?[*]|journal=Journal of Child Language|language=en|volume=21|issue=1|pages=9–31|doi=10.1017/S0305000900008655|pmid=8006097|s2cid=30936491 |issn=1469-7602}}</ref> Prior to Noam Chomsky's arguments for innate linguistic universals,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Aspects of the theory of syntax|last=Chomsky, Noam.|date=1965|publisher=M.I.T. Press|isbn=978-0262530071|location=Cambridge|oclc=309976|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/aspectsoftheoryo00chom}}</ref> there was a strong belief that the structures of language were learned from the input. Braine offered a compromise position that language acquisition was a process of mapping utterances onto a syntax of thought, supported by semantic primitives and a mental logic.
Braine proposed that when learning language, young children use "limited scope" formula to produce their first word combinations, with each formula consisting of a relational term with a slot to be filled (e.g. ''all gone ____'').<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Braine|first1=Martin D. S.|last2=Bowerman|first2=Melissa|date=1976|title=Children's First Word Combinations|journal=Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development|volume=41|issue=1|pages=1–104|doi=10.2307/1165959|jstor=1165959}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Language Development|last1=Brooks|first1=Patricia J.|last2=Kempe|first2=Vera|publisher=BPS Blackwell|year=2012|isbn=978-1444331462|pages=103, 110–113}}</ref> Braine's view that toddlers learn the combinatorial properties of words on an item-by-item basis paved the way for usage-based, lexicalist approaches to grammatical development.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Lieven|first1=Elena V. M.|last2=Pine|first2=Julian M.|last3=Baldwin|first3=Gillian|date=1997|title=Lexically-based learning and early grammatical development|journal=Journal of Child Language|language=en|volume=24|issue=1|pages=187–219|doi=10.1017/S0305000996002930|pmid=9154014|s2cid=28497319|issn=0305-0009}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Pine|first1=Julian M.|last2=Lieven|first2=Elena V. M.|date=1997|title=Slot and frame patterns and the development of the determiner category|journal=Applied Psycholinguistics|language=en|volume=18|issue=2|pages=123–138|doi=10.1017/S0142716400009930|s2cid=145808085|issn=0142-7164}}</ref> Other work focused on learners' acquisition of grammatical gender categories and their reliance on probabilistic cues to acquire grammatical structure. Braine's research emphasized how linguistic patterns are discovered and strengthened through use and repetition.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Mechanisms of language acquisition|others=MacWhinney, Brian.|isbn=9781315798721|location=London|oclc=1069721828}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Braine|first1=Martin D.S|last2=Brody|first2=Ruth E|last3=Brooks|first3=Patricia J|last4=Sudhalter|first4=Vicki|last5=Ross|first5=Julie A|last6=Catalano|first6=Lisa|last7=Fisch|first7=Shalom M|date=1990|title=Exploring language acquisition in children with a miniature artificial language: Effects of item and pattern frequency, arbitrary subclasses, and correction|journal=Journal of Memory and Language|language=en|volume=29|issue=5|pages=591–610|doi=10.1016/0749-596X(90)90054-4|doi-access=free}}</ref>
== Representative Publications ==
* Braine, M. D. S. (1963). On learning the grammatical order of words. ''Psychological Review'', ''70''(4), 323–348. *Braine, M. D. S. (1963). The ontogeny of English phrase structure: The first phase. ''Language, 39''(1), 1–13. *Braine, M. D. S.(1978). On the relation between the natural logic of reasoning and standard logic. ''Psychological Review'', ''85''(1), 1-21. *Braine, M. D. S., & Brooks, P. J. (1995). Verb argument structure and the problem of avoiding an overgeneral grammar. In M. Tomasello & W. E. Merriman (Eds.), ''Beyond names for things: Young children's acquisition of verbs'' (pp. 353–376). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. *Braine, M. D. S., & O'Brien, D. P. (1991). A theory of if: A lexical entry, reasoning program, and pragmatic principles. ''Psychological Review'', ''98''(2), 182–203. *Braine, M. D. S., & Rumain, B. (1981). Development of comprehension of “or”: Evidence for a sequence of competencies. ''Journal of Experimental Child Psychology'', ''31''(1), 46–70. *Braine, M. D. S., & David P. O'Brien (eds.) (1998). ''Mental Logic'', Mahwah, New Jersey London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Braine, Martin}} Category:1926 births Category:1996 deaths Category:Cognitive psychologists Category:Developmental psychologists Category:Psycholinguists Category:New York University faculty Category:New York University Graduate School of Arts and Science alumni Category:20th-century British psychologists