Adaptive Dynamics: The Theoretical Analysis of Behavior

Front Cover
MIT Press, 2001 - Business & Economics - 423 pages

In this book J.E.R. Staddon proposes an explanation of behavior that lies between cognitive psychology, which seeks to explain it in terms of mentalistic constructs, and cognitive neuroscience, which tries to explain it in terms of the brain. Staddon suggests a new way to understand the laws and causes of learning, based on the invention, comparison, testing, and modification or rejection of parsimonious real-time models for behavior. The models are neither physiological nor cognitive: they are behavioristic. Staddon shows how simple dynamic models can explain a surprising variety of animal and human behavior, ranging from simple orientation, reflexes, and habituation through feeding regulation, operant conditioning, spatial navigation, stimulus generalization, and interval timing.

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Contents

The Allocation of Behavior
27
Behavioral Economics
51
Trial and Error
79
Reflexes
105
Habituation and Memory Dynamics
135
Feeding Dynamics and Homeostasis
157
A Model for Feeding Dynamics
177
Incentive and Schedule Effects
203
Stimulus Control
259
Spatial Search
285
PacemakerAccumulator Models
311
MultipleTimeScale Theory
335
MTS and Time Estimation
353
Afterword
371
References
389
Index
413

Assignment of Credit
235

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About the author (2001)

J. E. R. Staddon is th James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Professor of Zoology and Neurobiology at Duke University.

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