Sensory integration and cognitive theory

Two independent but related problems are discussed: some implications of comparative psychology for learning theory, and the nature of the learning process in any given animal form. Both cognitive and stimulus-response positions in learning theory are anti-comparative because they lead to formulations so gross as to be applicable to all animal forms. They ignore the fact that processes of modification in paramecium and rat cannot be qualitatively identical because the two animals are anatomically quite dissimilar. If we take the facts of evolution seriously, we may expect to find qualitatively distinct processes at every major level of anatomical organization. In the learning of lower mammals, at least two distinct processes must be postulated: selective motor organization and sensory integration. An imposing amount of learning data can be better understood in terms of the concept of sensory integration than of either cognitive or reinforcement theory.