CSG membership; cats

[from Mary Powers (951110)]

First real snow today.

Thanks, Ken & Chris, for the photo and funny note.

If anyone else has a photo or two of any of the folks who came to
the 1995 CSG meeting, I would really appreciate a print. We have
almost no record of that meeting. If you have photos of people
who came, even if the photos were not taken at the meeting, that
would be swell too. I'll be happy to pay (my own $, not csg
funds - see below) for prints and postage.

We also have had a feeble response to requests for membership
updates and fees ($20, $5 for students). I realize that you may
feel you are getting a lot of nothing for your something, but it
mostly goes into a kitty to support student attendance at the
meeting. OK, as Isaac has pointed out, students have been thin
on the ground, but maybe if we continue to build the fund, they
will come...remember, if you came to the meeting, you are paid
up, as you are if you did send in already in 1995.

Address for checks and photos:

               Mary A. Powers (or The Control Systems Group)
               73 Ridge Place
               Durango CO 81301-8136

Now, some thoughts about Thorndike's cats, and our resident
notch-eared broken-fanged 15-year-old ex-shelter ex-kitten.

I am struck with how beautifully T's cats illustrate the concept
of a reorganization process which ends with the successful
escape. The idea of a process which stops, rather than the
notion of something being installed, is one of the rather eerily
reversed notions that emerge from control theory.

At the same time the same process is an excellent explanation of
superstitious behavior. Do whatever works. All the so-called
extraneous or stereotyped or superstitious behavior continues
because, one might assume, they do not constitute error for the
cat - they are not difficult, or painful, or too time-consuming,
etc. I would question how long they would continue, however. I
don't know how long T. ran his experiments. Our cat was
introduced to a cat door 4 years ago, and continued for some time
to do a lot more than just go in and out - pawing it, bumping it
with his nose, various hesitations. Now, a quick look out the
window at the lie of the land, and swish. So it seems to me that
even a cat, given time, will trim his procedures to the efficient
minimum, though it may take quite a while. Cats aren't very busy
and don't have much to do, so correcting these minor errors
needn't happen very fast. Incidentally, this same cat has
figured out that we aren't very responsive when he meows to come
in the patio door (we can't hear him very well). If it's urgent,
he'll scratch the glass or the screen and make noise. If he is
in no rush, he sits there and fakes the meow. He's learned not
to bother with the vocal part. So I would imagine there is some
reference level in the cat for minimizing effort in the conduct
of his life.

Chris Cherpas.

Another take on perception. In PCT it is defined as all ingoing
(or upgoing) signals. It is used inclusively to cover sensation,
perception, and cognition (as I have seen those signals labelled
in various diagrams). In PCT perceptual signals converge on
perceptual functions, which generate new perceptual signals of a
higher order. HPCT suggests 11 stages of this process, beginning
with intensities, which generate sensations, which generate
configurations, and so on up through sequences, programs,
principles, and system concepts. Many psychologists have a
favorite level (such as the TOTE unit) and try to fit all the
levels into it, ending up with one or two or three levels of
tremendous complexity. HPCT keeps each level very simple, and
proceeds incrementally, providing in a single model a place for
the studies ranging from the kind of neurological research being
done on the eye to considerations of principles and beliefs.

Mary P.