[FROM: Dennis Delprato (931029)]
Greg Williams, passed on from motor schema theorists:
Thus whatever is
learned and stored in long-term memory cannot be a specific set of
muscle commands but must represent a more generic or general set of
specifications of how to reach the desired goal. These specifications
were labeled by Bartlett (1932) and Schmidt (1975) as a MOTOR SCHEMA."
Tom Bourbon (931028.1412) said:
After reading that people use variyng
means to reach unvarying ends, we see that they do so by learning and
storing specifications for how to reach a desired goal. I assume they
must then extract just the right specifications to use under just the right
(variable) conditions. That still sounds pretty lineal to me, and not at
all like PCT.
Crucial in motor schema view is "how to reach the desired goal." PCT
is the only theory I know of that does not have the behaver building
up one or another form of "fixed action patterns," be they cognitively,
environmentally, or otherwise "set off." Looking at the problem of
"goal attainment" from the non-PCT perspective, there always seems
to be something of a "response selection" or "motor pathways"
problem. I.e., it seems we have to be able to predict which motor
routes the behaver will take at a given point in time. Will they
turn left or right, say this or that, ...? It is after all the
motoric output that offends others, concerns others, pleases
others, is neutral to others. There seems to an external observer
bias that leds us to focus on what I've just called response
selection as the end-all of psychological behavior. PCT is
in the difficult position of saying that what hits us between the
eyes (or elsewhere) is actually not important for understanding
what is "really going on." This makes bridge-building very difficult.
It is both encouraging and confusing that PCT models _do_
seem to predict motoric concommitants of psychological
control system behavior. Perhaps someone would help
by modeling some straightforward response choice preparations.
I do endorse Greg Williams's attempts at bridge-building.
Dennis Delprato
Dept. of Psychology
Eastern Mich. Univ.
Ypsilanti, MI 48197
psy_delprato@emunix.emich.edu