Wiki update - redefining behavior

CSGnet Archive CSG2008
1

[From Fred Nickols (2008.01.03.0715 MT)]

Oh well. What the heck. It's a new year so I might as well take another crack at this.

"This" is the closing line in Rick's post below: "behavior is the control of perception."

More than any other thing I think that statement gets in the way of advancing PCT. I don't have any problem with "behavior controls perception" nor do I have any difficulty with saying "behavior serves to control perception" or even "the function of behavior is to control perception." But, for zillions and zillions of us out here, behavior is the activity of the organism. True, the purpose or function served by that activity is to control perception, but I don't think that's the same thing as saying that behavior IS the control of perception. So, FWIW, I think it is counter-productive to insist on redefining behavior as the control of perception. Explaining behavior (i.e., the activity of the organism) as the control of perception is likely to get much farther.

So, go ahead; depose me.

Grumpy regards,

···

--
Fred Nickols
Toolmaker to Knowledge Workers
www.skullworks.com
nickols@att.net
    
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Richard Marken <rsmarken@GMAIL.COM>

[From Rick Marken (2008.01.02.1530)]

> Bruce Abbott (2008.01.02.1140 EST)--

> Rick, with respect to Furman and Gallo, I understand the basis of your
> criticism but have to disagree with your conclusion that by equating PCT
> with Miller et al's TOTE mechanism, Furman and Gallo "got PCT completely
> wrong."

OK, they didn't get it _completely_ wrong; they just got the most
important stuff wrong. The TOTE unit misses the most important points
of control from a PCT perspective. There is no explicit recognition of
a reference specification for input nor any recognition that the input
controlled is a perceptual representation of some aspect of the
environmental situation. How's that for missing the boat. They
basically missed that one little aspect of PCT that seems so important
to me: that behavior is the control of perception.

Happy New Year.

Best

Rick
---
Richard S. Marken PhD
rsmarken@gmail.com

2

More than any other thing I
think that statement gets in the way of advancing PCT. I don’t have
any problem with “behavior controls perception” nor do I have
any difficulty with saying “behavior serves to control
perception” or even “the function of behavior is to control
perception.” But, for zillions and zillions of us out here,
behavior is the activity of the organism.
[From Bill Powers (2008.01.03.0907 MST)]

Fred Nickols (2008.01.03.0715 MT) –

You could be right, since it keeps provoking arguments. However, it does
get people to stop and think a bit if they’re inclined to wonder how that
could be right. I thought I was clever in picking a title for BCP that
could be understood either way, so the usual reader would start out
thinking it meant “Behavior: how perception controls it” and
then, somewhere in the book, realize that it meant just the opposite:
“Behavior: how it controls perception.”

I have learned since BCP not to play tricks on the reader and to say what
I mean right up front. Being too clever usually doesn’t work. So I
agree with you, but I’m not going to recall BCP for a change of
title.

Best,

Bill P.