A feedback model for behavior: Application to a rat experiment

Abstract

Stimulus-response laws can be rendered trivial when environmental feedback exists from R to S. An input quantity (qi), defined as the actual environmental quantity or event that leads to a response, is a function of both the applied stimulus (S) and the feedback from the related ongoing behavior (R): qi = h(R, S). The observed behavior is dependent on actual input stimulation via the organism function: R = g(qi). Hence R = g(h(R, S)), and not R = g(S). Analysis of a shock-avoidance experiment done by Verhave illustrates a method for taking environmental feedback effects into account; the resulting model fitted to the behavior of one rat predicts the behavior of another rat in an altered experiment with an RMS error of less than one bar-press per minute. Graphical solutions to a range of possible functions g and h (as above) show why this type of experiment reveals more about the experimental apparatus than about the rats. When environmental feedback is significant (and negative) one must characterize the organism's actions as behavioral control of stimulation and not stimulus control of behavior.

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