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Introduction

Lecture 08

Philosophical Issues in Behavioural Science

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essay question

What is an interface problem? ✓

Consider one case in which an interface problem arises. ✓

How could the problem be solved? ???

I want to show you

two interface problems.

Each is going to take about half a lecture.

interface problem #1:
motor representations vs intentions

background on motor representation (recap)

roles of motor representation

1. your intention to add an egg to the bowl triggers a motor representation

No sure where intention ends and motor representation begins. May vary. But intention does not reach all the way down to the joint displacements. And intention is usually not concerned with the coordination of your two hands.

Most importantly there are cases—skilled action—where intention does not reach very far down at all. (For me that’s typing; also think about piano.)

roles of motor representation

1. your intention to add an egg to the bowl triggers a motor representation

‘there is more to the causation of an action than its initiation, namely, how it is carried out.’ (Bach, 1978, p. 363)

This is here (a) to show that we are talking about philosophy; and (b) for me to recommend Bach (1978) as a useful source.

Complication: what looks like implementation from higher in the hierachy looks like initiation from lower down the hierarchy.

2. a habitual process links a stimulus to an outcome: the stimlus triggers a motor representation

Lever press typically requires sustained coordination of affectors.

two questions

1. How do we know they are representations?

2. What do they represent?

Because they are sensitive to facts about the future concerning which there is no environmental information.

Markers of motor representation ...

The experiments providing such evidence typically involve a marker of motor representation, such as a pattern of neuronal firings, a motor evoked potential or a behavioural performance profile, which, in controlled settings, allows sameness or difference of motor representation to be distinguished. Such markers can be exploited to show that the sameness and difference of motor representation is linked to the sameness and difference of an outcome such as the grasping of a particular object. (Pioneering uses of this method include Rizzolatti et al., 1988; Giacomo Rizzolatti, Fogassi, & Gallese, 2001; it has since been developed in many ways: see, for example, Hamilton & Grafton (2008); Cattaneo, Caruana, Jezzini, & Rizzolatti (2009); Cattaneo, Sandrini, & Schwarzbach (2010); Rochat et al. (2010); Bonini et al. (2010); Koch et al. (2010).)

1. are unaffected by variations in kinematic features but not goals

2. are affected by variations in goals but not kinematic features

So: 3. carry information about goals (from 1,2)

Also

4. Information about outcomes guides planning-like processes.