Behavioral illusions: The Snark is a Boojum

A behavioral illusion is a regularity of behavior that appears to reflect something about the functional characteristics of an organism when it does not. This illusion occurs when the methods appropriate to the study of an open-loop or zero feedback (Z)-system are used to study the behavior of what is, in fact, a closed-loop or negative feedback (N)-system. The situation is like the one described in Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark, where the sought-after Snark—analogous to the actual organism function—looks just like the feared Boojum—analogous to the illusory one. This article describes examples of three different kinds of behavioral illusion and explains how researchers can avoid the mistake of taking a Boojum for a Snark by reorienting the study of behavior toward identifying the perceptual variables that organisms control and away from seeking regularities in their overt behavior.

Building Blocks of Psychology: on Remaking the Unkept Promises of Early Schools

The appeal and popularity of "building blocks", i.e., simple and dissociable elements of behavior and experience, persists in psychological research. We begin our assessment of this research strategy with an historical review of structuralism (as espoused by E. B. Titchener) and behaviorism (espoused by J. B. Watson and B. F. Skinner), two movements that held the assumption in their attempts to provide a systematic and unified discipline. We point out the ways in which the elementism of the two schools selected, framed, and excluded topics of study. After the historical review, we turn to contemporary literature and highlight the persistence of research into building blocks and the associated framing and exclusions in psychological research. The assumption that complex categories of human psychology can be understood in terms of their elementary components and simplest forms seems indefensible. In specific cases, therefore, reliance on the assumption requires justification. Finally, we review alternative strategies that bypass the commitment to building blocks.

A General Architecture for Robotics Systems: A Perception-Based Approach to Artificial Life

Departing from the conventional view of the reasons for the behavior of living systems, this research presents a radical and unique view of that behavior, as the observed side effects of a hierarchical set of simple, continuous, and dynamic negative feedback control systems, by way of an experimental model implemented on a real-world autonomous robotic rover. Rather than generating specific output from input, the systems control their perceptual inputs by varying output. The variables controlled do not exist in the environment, but are entirely internal perceptions constructed as a result of the layout and connections of the neural architecture. As the underlying processes are independent of the domain, the architecture is universal and thus has significant implications not only for understanding natural living systems, but also for the development of robotics systems. The central process of perceptual control has the potential to unify the behavioral sciences and is proposed as the missing behavioral principle of Artificial Life.

The power law of movement: an example of a behavioral illusion

The curved movements produced by living organisms follow a power law where the velocity of movement is a power function of the degree of curvature through which the movement is made. The exponent of the power function is close to either 1/3 or 2/3 depending on how velocity and curvature are measured. This power law is thought to reflect biological and/or kinematic constraints on how organisms produce movements. The present paper shows that the power law is actually a statistical artifact that results from mistaking a correlational for a causal relationship between variables. The power law implies that curvature influences the velocity of movement. In fact, the power law is a mathematical consequence of the way that these variables are calculated. The appearance that curvature affects the velocity of movement is shown to be an example of a "behavioral illusion" that results from ignoring the purpose of behavior.

Testing for controlled variables: a model-based approach to determining the perceptual basis of behavior

Perceptual control theory (PCT) views behavior as being organized around the control of perceptual variables. Thus, from a PCT perspective, understanding behavior is largely a matter of determining the perceptions that organisms control-the perceptions that are the basis of the observed behavior. This task is complicated by the fact that very often the perceptions that seem to be the obvious basis of some behavior are not. This problem is illustrated using a simple pursuit-tracking task in which the goal was to keep a cursor vertically aligned with a target set at various horizontal distances from the cursor. The "obvious" perceptual basis of the behavior in this task is the vertical distance between cursor and target. But a control model suggests that a better description of the perceptual basis of the behavior is the angle between cursor and target. The experiment shows how a control model can be used to do the test for the controlled variable, a control-theory-based approach to distinguishing the actual from the apparent perceptual basis of any behavior.

When Causality Does Not Imply Correlation: More Spadework at the Foundations of Scientific Psychology

Experimental research in psychology is based on an open-loop causal model which assumes that sensory input causes behavioral output. This model was tested in a tracking experiment where participants were asked to control a cursor, keeping it aligned with a target by moving a mouse to compensate for disturbances of differing difficulty. Since cursor movements (inputs) are the only observable cause of mouse movements (outputs), the open-loop model predicts that there will be a correlation between input and output that increases as tracking performance improves. In fact, the correlation between sensory input and motor output is very low regardless of the quality of tracking performance; causality, in terms of the effect of input on output, does not seem to imply correlation in this situation. This surprising result can be explained by a closed-loop model which assumes that input is causing output while output is causing input.

Can a control model approach assist case formulation in psychotherapy?

This paper looks at issues regarding case formulation in psychotherapy. Case formulation is well recognized as being helpful in the conceptualizing of psychological problems and as a useful tool in the practice of cognitive therapy. Control, as opposed to behaviour, is increasingly being seen as that human process most relevant to psychopathology. We look at the diagnosis and treatment of a small number of people, treated in a naturalistic setting, who were selected without any specific criteria other than being people whose problems were treated using the Method of Levels, a form of cognitive therapy based on the principles of Perceptual Control Theory, and who completed both pre- and post-treatment questionnaires. We then consider how the problems these people presented with, and their treatment, might be formulated as a result of taking this approach.

You Say you Had a Revolution: Methodological Foundations of Closed-Loop Psychology

To the extent that a scientific revolution represents a fundamental change in a discipline, the cognitive revolution in psychology was not particularly revolutionary. What changed least in this revolution was methodology. The experimental methods used in cognitive psychology are the same as those used in the behaviorism it overthrew. This methodological continuity results from the fact that both behaviorism and cognitive psychology are based on the same paradigm, which is also the basis of experimental psychology: the open-loop causal model of behavioral organization. A truly revolutionary approach to understanding the mind has been largely ignored because it is built on a paradigm that is inconsistent with conventional research methods. This new approach to psychology, called Perceptual Control Theory (PCT), is based on a closed-loop control model of behavioral organization that is tested using control engineering methods that are unfamiliar to most psychologists. This paper introduces the methodological foundations of closed-loop psychology, explains why the closed-loop revolution has not happened yet, and suggests what psychology might look like after the revolution has occurred.

Error in skilled performance: a control model of prescribing

A control model of skilled performance is proposed as a framework for understanding why prescribing errors occur at a particular rate. Model error rate depends on skill level, system design characteristics, the range of different types of prescriptions that are produced and the time available to complete each prescription. The parameters of the model can be adjusted so it produces error rates that are quantitatively equal to those found in studies of the incidence of different types of prescribing error. The model will also produce error rates that are qualitatively consistent with the results of studies that show increases in prescribing error rates as a result of increases in distractions and workload. The model is used to determine the likely effectiveness of different prescribing error prevention interventions.