The functional organization of behaviour

Baerends, Gerard P.

doi:10.1016/s0003-3472(76)80002-4

Cited by 215 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…This classical ethological focus on motivational state has largely been superseded by a more comprehensive and multidimensional view, in which the behavioral response that is reflected during specific motor patterns arises from the parallel interaction of several independent stimuli controlled by the motivating system. It has been shown that the motivational system controls the entire complex of motivating stimuli, which include both releasing and directing stimuli during the display of attack or defense [10]. This finding suggests that the motivational system provides the neural mechanism that controls the motor patterning for the particular motivational state that is manifested during attack or defense.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative analysis of the mechanisms of attack and defense among higher brain animals

Nathaniel

Femi²,

Nathaniel

2006

Open Life Sciences

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Many studies have investigated different mechanisms of attack and defense in different species of higher brain animals including cats, rats, rodents, mice, and even in some bird species. However, detailed comparative analysis has not been carried out to understand the major similarities in the mechanisms of attack and defense across the different species of vertebrates. Although there are differences, there are also significant similarities as well, which warrant comparative assessment. By considering ethological ideas associated with the motivational defense system, we investigated the motor patterns of attack and defense in cats and rats, using the "resident-intruder" experimental paradigm. Our results reveal specific similarities and differences in the motor patterns of attack and defense in rats and cats. We discuss comparatively the mechanisms of attack and defense across different species of vertebrates, focusing on motor patterns, neuromodulating factors, brains neural substrates, and circuitry.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative analysis of the mechanisms of attack and defense among higher brain animals

Nathaniel

Femi²,

Nathaniel

2006

Open Life Sciences

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“…• Lorenz's psycho-hydraulic mechanism (Lorenz, 1950;, a model that tries to explain some ethological phenomena, without completely approaching the action selection problem. • Baerends' model (Baerends, 1976), a hierarchic network of nodes, a model inspired by ethologist studies made in particular species of insects and birds.…”

Section: "Look To Nature and Let Simulated Nature Take Its Course" -mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…BeCA integrates in a single model an extensive repertoire of properties and principles desired in adaptive autonomous agents. Although different subsets of these properties can be found characterizing other ASMs and BPSs reported in the literature (Tinbergen, 1950;Tinbergen, 1951;Lorenz, 1950;Lorenz, 1981;Baerends, 1976;Brooks, 1986;Brooks, 1989;Rosenblatt and Payton, 1989;Maes, 1990;Beer, 1990;Beer, Chiel and Sterling, 1990;Hallam, Halperin and Hallam, 1994;Negrete and Martínez, 1996;Goetz and Walters, 1997), none of them present all of them as a whole, and the incorporation of all these properties in a single model provides great robustness in the behaviour production. The result is a BPS with a very high degree of adaptation.…”

Section: "All Things Are What One Thinks Of Them" -Metrodorus Of Chiusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Artificial Societies of Intelligent Agents

Gershenson

2003

SSRN Journal

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“…Consider, for example, nest provisioning behavior of the digger wasp, Ammophila adriaansei (Baerends, 1976), depicted in Figure 1. The wasp lays eggs in a number of underground burrows and provisions each of them with caterpillars to feed the larvae when they hatch.…”

Section: What Is a Behavior System?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Commentary: What are behavior systems and what use are they?

Shettleworth

1994

Psychon Bull Rev

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The contributions of this symposium on behavior systems are summarized and evaluated by considering two questions: (1) What is a behavior system? (2) What use to the learning theorist are behavior systems? Twoexamples of behavior systems from the classical ethological literature are compared with the behavior systems discussed in the symposium, and some similarities and differences in the type of analyses used are discussed. Analysis of the preorganized species-typical behavior systems relevant to the unconditioned stimuli or reinforcers in learning experiments can contribute performance rules and better understanding of the conditions and contents of learning. The organization of behavior systems can also provide important clues to the neural circuitry underlying behavior, and a behavior systems approach can raise novel questions concerning learning and behavioral development. Possible future directions for the behavior systems approach are briefly discussed.The contributors to this symposium deserve our thanks for reviewing in one place four successful and interesting research programs. Although these programs are diverse in the questions they ask and the methods they use, each of them has made extensive use of the notion that behavior is organized hierarchically into motivational systems. In his introduction, Timberlake (1994) claims that this approach can unify the disparate contemporary approaches to learning. Here, I briefly address Timberlake's claim by discussing two questions. First, what is a behavior system? Second, what use to the learning theorist are behavior systems? What Is a Behavior System?Readers may be struck by the fact that each contribution to the symposium contains some sort of diagrammatic representation of a behavior system: fear in the rat (Fanselow, 1994), feeding in the rat (Timberlake, 1994), courtship in quail (Domjan, 1994, and dustbathing and feeding in chickens (Hogan, 1994). One thing these have in common is their hierarchical organization. Implicitly or explicitly, the lowest level of the hierarchy is a set of species-typical motor patterns. As both Hogan and Timberlake point out, the idea that species-typical behavior is organized into motivational systems of this general nature is at the core of classical ethology. Comparing the schemes for behavior systems presented here with some older ethological examples reveals some important similarities and differences and raises a few questions.

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The functional organization of behaviour

Cited by 215 publications

References 25 publications

Comparative analysis of the mechanisms of attack and defense among higher brain animals

Comparative analysis of the mechanisms of attack and defense among higher brain animals

Artificial Societies of Intelligent Agents

Commentary: What are behavior systems and what use are they?

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