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The "off-the-top" findings of the air-defense experiments conducted in RAND's Systems Research Laboratory between 1952 and 1954 were the training principles that are the basis of the system training program being implemented by the System Development Corporation. There are, however, other theoretical and methodological implications. The desired performance of complex systems can be realized only through designing and managing them for operational flexibility. This can be done by harnessing the learning ability of men in organizations. Conditions for encouraging men to adapt system's resources to most efficient use follow from the organism analogy--a key notion for explaining the behavior of the four crews studied. In addition, the simulation techniques developed in the course of the research provide a means for continued "head-on" attacks on a crucial problem of the present day--that of better understanding the adaptation process in organizations, so that it can be used and controlled. The paper is in the form of a report of a scientific search. The story of experimental mistakes, modifications in method, and successive insights is presented to convey the essence of an ambitious investigation at the frontier of knowledge where the terrain is not well-mapped and the research tools are being developed as needed.

A. INTRODUCTIONPhysiological, clinical and pathological observations point to the diencephalon as that part of the central nervous system in which is located the neural organization for the expression of certain emotional reactions. The evidence likewise indicates that the cerebral cortex normally functions in such a manner as to dominate these expressions which are integrated at the lower levels. The cortex can function not only in a negative way by preventing the occurrence of the expressions of these emotional states, but it can also greatly increase the number of situations which are capable of acting as emotional stimuli.The theory of the inhibitory functioning of the cortex in relation to subcortically organized mechanisms, early advanced by Hughlings Jackson (25) and later elaborated by Head (22,23) gets most of its support in connection with emotional expression from a group of studies on sham rage. In the majority of these studies lesions have been produced at various levels in the nervous system of animals (cats and dogs) and a delimitation attempted of the area which must be present for the appearance of sham rage of maximal intensity.* Standard errors of coefficients are used throughout this study.

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