Do we need algebraic-like computations? A reply to Bonatti, Pena, Nespor, and Mehler (2006)

Bonatti, Peña, Nespor, and Mehler (this issue) argued that Perruchet, Tyler, Galland, and Peereman (2004) confused “segmentation” and “generalization” by ignoring the evidence for generalization in Peña, Bonatti, Nespor, and Mehler (2002). In this reply, we reformulate and complement our initial arguments, showing that our way of dealing with segmentation and generalization is not due to confusion or ignorance, but to the fact that methodological issues in Peña et al. cast strong doubt on whether either of the two processes were captured in their experiments. Finally, we address the authors’ challenge of accounting for the whole pattern of their results without invoking rule-based, algebraic-like computations.