Cybernetics, Experience, and the Concept of Self

Abstract

Encountering the term "cybernetics," most people tend to think of robots, computers, and electronics. There are three areas of cybernetic thought that are particularly germane to the study of early cognitive development: self-regulation, inductive learning, and the constructivist approach to experience and its organization. Insofar as the cyberneticist is a builder of models that are supposed to regulate or govern themselves, he must remain aware of that dichotomy. Self-regulation, in cybernetics, usually refers to the principle of "negative feedback." The epistemological aspects of the cybernetic approach have particularly interesting implications for the study of cognition and cognitive development. One of the early contributions of cybernetics to the theory of scientific analysis and investigation was the concept of a black box. A true cyberneticist knows that the "intelligent" functions he is investigating are never observable. In cybernetics the metaphor is implemented in the "closed loop," the circular arrangement of feedback mechanisms that maintain a given value within certain limits.

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