Degrees of Freedom in Behavior

[Avery Andrews 930416.1221]

2 more remarks on Degrees of Freedom in Behavior (from Mind Readings)

First, it strikes me that the main thing shown by the paper is that
it is possible for there to be phoney coordinative structures:
constraints on the dof's of the disturbances can produce apparent c.s.'s
that prove not to be on closer examination (how to conduct the
closer examination being an important aspect of the point). It is
also shown that constraints on the dof's of disturbances don't lead
to the rapid emergence of coordinative structures, though I don't think
that their eventual emergence is ruled out (keeping in mind that
speech production and grasping, where c.s.'s have been claimed to have
been found, are massively over-practiced).

Second, Rick argues at the end that cursor position is represented in
Cartesian rather than polar coordinates, but it seems to me that
head-centered 3d polar coordinates can't be ruled out, whereby position
of the cursor on the Mac screen would be represented by angles of
azimuth and elevation from some arbitrary (and possibly even variable)
center-point. I don't have any clear idea how to distinguish this kind
of polar from Cartesian coordinates, unfortunately.