The target article presented a model to stimulate further research and ultimately, a more definitive theory of the ontogeny and phylogeny of hierarchically organized sequential activity. Methodologically, it was intended to stimulate methods for integrating data from different neuropsychological techniques. This response to Givon and Swann focuses on several substantive areas: (1) the role of automaticity in hierarchically organized activity and its neural substrate, (2) the neural ontogeny of planning, (3) cognitive and neural architecture for language functions, and (4) the role of environmental input and interaction in the ontogeny and phylogeny of language, tools, and brain.