[From Rupert Young (2013.10.19 15.00 BST)]
Chapter 14 is a very interesting chapter as it gets into how the organisation of control systems could arise during the lifetime of an organism, in addition to, and providing for more flexible behaviour than, those that may be inherited. The basic process is one of reorganisation of the parameters and structure of the neural systems, driven by the "intrinsic" error, independent of the kind of behaviour involved. The intrinsic error being the difference between the current and desired state of the organism.
Some intrinsic reference variables were discussed, but I would suggest that there is really only one intrinsic reference, and that is of energy acquisition, which keeps the organism going, and represents the intrinsic purpose of any organism. All other proposed references, such as harmony, cooperation and clearness, are derived from (are a result of) this reference. For example, if there is disharmony then energy (e.g food) acquisition will be more difficult. Similarly, if an organism is receiving all its energy requirements then cooperation with others is not necessary.
The main difference, therefore, between simple organisms (e.g plankton) and more complex organisms (e.g. humans) is that there are more complex layers (the levels) of neural processing between the input and output functions of the energy acquisition control system. The more levels there are the more flexible are the means by which that energy can be acquired. Evolutionary adaptation involves the addition of levels to a hierarchy that is no longer able to acquire energy in the face of changing environments.
The principle of reorganisation, of the system, was contrasted with the behaviourist concept of learning being the reinforcement of actions. What other (modern) theories of learning are there; concerning such things as neural plasticity and neural networks? In what way do they differ from the PCT idea of learning?
There were a few other points that stood out for me.
Pattern recognition is best viewed as extracting subjective information (perceptions) relevant to the perspective of the perceiver rather than computing objective structure of the external world.
Behaviour affects not only sensory perceptions but also internal states of the organism, which may also be perceptions that can be controlled; and challenges the view of behaviour being a response to external stimuli.
Superstitious behaviour can arise if a collection of actions includes one that is effective, resulting in the cessation of reorganisation. Therapies such as homoeopathy, reiki "healing" are modern-day equivalents of witch-doctoring, though without any actions with the efficacy of aspirin, so I wonder how they persist? Perhaps due to a very loose sense of the problem (the controlled variable) and a general lack of awareness of the effects of the actions taken.
Leading questions:
1. No.
2. Don't see how. Not familiar.
3. The latter. Well, if you were controlling for praise (hearing the word "right") then you'd start answering incorrectly.
4. It's random? I think you wouldn't really have a clue what works.
5. The latter. The latter. I would have thought so. It doesn't really matter what actions are taken to achieve the friendliness.
6. Yes, most of the time. If there were no difficulties (error) there wouldn't be anything to learn.
7. The latter requires reorganisation.8.
* Previous systems
* Reorganisation
* Previous systems
* Reorganisation
* Memory
* Previous systems
* Memory
Regards,
Rupert
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On 14/10/2013 18:30, Richard Marken wrote:
[From Rick Marken (2013.10.14.1030)]
Here is my Summary of Ch 13 on Higher Levels. I have included it as the last summary in the attached file into which I have pasted the summaries of all chapters we have discussed so far. Some of these summaries are quiterough and need a lot of editing; some are pretty good. But this collection of summaries seems like a nice first step towards an improved future version of this course.
I consider this the "mid point" of the course because the whole model of behavior -- of skilled behavior (control) -- has now been described. Starting this week we will embark on the second half of the course, which deals with topics related to how the hierarchy develops and improves (learning, memory and emotion), how it goes wrong (conflict) and how to study it (experimental methods).
So the assignment for this week is to read Ch. 14, on Learning. Relevant to this chapter is the fine work of Frans Plooij and his late wife Hetty on the development of control during the first year of life (a topic that is of particular interest to me at the moment). The work of the Plooij's was inspired by the model described in B:CP and is described in their book "The Wonder Years". If you don't have it, get it! It will be a great supplement to the discussion of Ch. 14.
Best regards
Rick
--
Richard S. Marken PhD
<mailto:rsmarken@gmail.com>> rsmarken@gmail.com
<http://www.mindreadings.com>> www.mindreadings.com