On the Development of Mediation Theory in Psychology

The idea that two mental elements can be associated with the mediation of others, contiguous to both, is very old in association theory; it is explicitly mentioned by Associationists (Locke, Hume, Hamilton). These notions of mediation were succeeded to the notion of S-R mediational process by Behaviorists such as Watson, Hull, and Spence, as well as contemporary theorists such as Osgood, Mowrer, and Bousfield. S-R mediational process was conceptuarized as implicit response and it's a stimulus in all theorists, but many disagreements arise as soon as one compares more detailed formulations of mediation which attempt to specify the nature and the function of the processes. These disagreements were clarified and discussed in this paper