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MECHANISM REVISITED or “What is the go of that?” M. JACKSON MARR GEORGIA TECH

MECHANISM REVISITED or “What is the go of that?” M. JACKSON MARR GEORGIA TECH. SOME CONCEPTUAL DIVISIONS IN BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS. MECHANISM Biological science Selection as contingency mechanism dynamical systems (integrative) molar vs. molecular issues emergent phenomena

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MECHANISM REVISITED or “What is the go of that?” M. JACKSON MARR GEORGIA TECH

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  1. MECHANISM REVISITED or “What is the go of that?” M. JACKSON MARR GEORGIA TECH

  2. SOME CONCEPTUAL DIVISIONS IN BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS • MECHANISM • Biological science • Selection as contingency mechanism • dynamical systems (integrative) • molar vs. molecular issues • emergent phenomena • verbal behavior a product of • the world—then “world making” • g. “successful working”: But asks why? • h. prediction and, if possible, control. • i. “How things work” at the heart of • the matter. CONTEXTUALISM a. descriptive (hard constructionism) b. functional (soft constructionism) c. behavioral pragmatism d. world-making via verbal behavior e. goals of prediction and influence f. “successful working” for no particular reasons or criteria. g. refusal to accept any reality: “How things work” irrelevant, meaningless question. h. behavioral solipsism? i. “pragmatic” idealism

  3. Straw Mechanism “Mechanists” are said to champion: • Old-time S-R associationism • Reductionism (a pejorative term) • Molecularism? • Naïve realism • Finding absolute truth • Static processes • Linear, billiard-ball causality • Metaphorical mediated action, states, etc. In general, mechanists ignore complexity.

  4. BUT WHAT KINDS OF MECHANISMS?

  5. SOME SOURCES OF VARIATION • MEIOSIS PROCESSES (e.g., recombination, linkage distance) • SEGREGATION (e.g., independent assortment, dominance, incomplete dominance, epistasis, pleiotropy) • NON-MENDELIAN PROCESSES (e.g., cytoplasmic inheritance, dependent assortment) • CHROMOSOMAL VARIATIONS (e.g., polyploidy, deletions, duplications, inversions, translocations) • MUTATIONS (e.g., transitions, transversions, tautometric, regulatory effects) • ALTERNATIVE SPLICING • QUANTITATIVE (e.g., polygenic expression, genetic drift, gene-environment interaction, epigenesis)

  6. MORE SOURCES OF VARIATION • DEVELOPMENTAL DYNAMICS • IN UTERO HISTORY • STOCHASTIC / CHAOTIC PHYSIOLOGICAL PROCESSES • REFLEX PATTERNS AND THRESHOLDS • SPECIES-SPECIFIC SENSORY / MOTOR PROGRAMS • SELF-ORGANIZATIONAL PROCESSES: EMERGENCE • SOCIAL DYNAMICS • SHAPING • VARIATION AS A RESPONSE CLASS • A HOST OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES RELATED TO ALL THE ABOVE PLUS MUCH MORE

  7. COMPUTATIONAL MODELING • NEURAL NETWORKS • CELLULAR AUTOMATA • DYNAMIC PROGRAMING • DYNAMIC STATE VARIABLE MODELS • GENETIC ALGORITHMS • SIMULATED ANNEALING • MONTE CARLO METHODS • STATISTICAL MECHANICS OF LEARNING

  8. PHYSICS Deterministic Reductive Mechanistic +Immediate Causation SIMPLICITY BIOLOGY Stochastic Emergent Selectionistic +Historical Causation COMPLEXITY PHYSICS VS. BIOLOGY/BEHAVIOR Mayr’s Distinctions

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