Article Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "pk": 5302,
    "title": "Behavioral Variability in the Service of Constancy",
    "subtitle": null,
    "abstract": "From a stimulus-response (S-R) point of view, or even with an intermediate step, involving cognition (S-O-R), the existence of behavioral variablity in organisms, even under tightly controlled experimental conditions, suggests that 1) the relevant inputs to the system have not been fully characterized, 2) even the most minute difference in system inputs can produce vastly variable behavioral output, or 3) that behavior is fundamentally variable.  Any of these possibilities leads to the conclusion that precise behavioral prediction, at any given moment, is virtually impossible. One can, however, re-conceptualize the challenge of understanding behavior such that it involves not what the organism will do from moment to moment, but what the characteristics of the system that governs the behavior of the organism are. In this paper, I outline a closed-loop cybernetic approach to understanding behavior, for which behavioral variability is actually a requirement. Findings are presented from a series of experiments across species, and using computer simulations, that support a cybernetic interpretation of behavior.  I argue that behavioral variability provides adaptive advantages to organisms – regardless of whether that variability is produced by noise, or is actively generated by nervous systems. Finally, I discuss some ideas from embodied cognition that impose constraints on the variability of behavior.",
    "language": "en",
    "license": {
        "name": "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0",
        "short_name": "CC BY 4.0",
        "text": "Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.\r\n\r\nNo additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.",
        "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0"
    },
    "keywords": [
        {
            "word": "Cybernetics, Perceptual Control Theory, Behavior, Cross-species Comparison, Agent Based Model, Eshkol Wachman Movement Analysis, Stimulus-Response, Circular Causality, Ethology"
        }
    ],
    "section": "Special Issue: Revisiting The Legacy of Stan Kuczaj",
    "is_remote": true,
    "remote_url": "https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0ch4g2x6",
    "frozenauthors": [
        {
            "first_name": "Heather",
            "middle_name": "Christine",
            "last_name": "Bell",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "University of California, San Diego",
            "department": "None"
        }
    ],
    "date_submitted": "2014-03-03T20:35:53Z",
    "date_accepted": "2014-03-03T20:35:53Z",
    "date_published": "2014-05-11T19:41:45Z",
    "render_galley": null,
    "galleys": [
        {
            "label": "",
            "type": "",
            "path": "https://journalpub.escholarship.org/uclapsych_ijcp/article/5302/galley/3173/download/"
        }
    ]
}