Quantitative analysis of purposive systems: Some spadework at the foundations of scientific psychology

Argues that the revolution in psychology that cybernetics at one time seemed to promise has been delayed by 4 blunders: (a) dismissal of control theory as a mere machine analogy, (b) failure to describe control phenomena from the behaving system's point of view, (c) applying the general control system model with its signals and functions improperly identified, and (d) focusing on man-machine systems in which the "man" part is conventionally described. A general nonlinear quasi-static analysis of relationships between an organism and its environment shows that the classical stimulus-response, stimulus-orgamism-response, or antecedent-consequent analyses of behavioral organization are special cases, a far more likely case being a control system type of relationship. Even for intermittent interactions, the control system equations lead to one simple characterization: Control systems control what they sense, opposing disturbances as they accomplish this end. A series of progressively more complex experimental demonstrations of principle illustrates both phenomena and methodology in a control system approach to the quantitative analysis of purposive systems, that is, systems in which the governing principle is control of input. (18 ref)