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Induction/catastrophe theory: A behavioral ecological approach to cognition in human individuals
Author(s) -
Dockens William S.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
behavioral science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1099-1743
pISSN - 0005-7940
DOI - 10.1002/bs.3830240204
Subject(s) - cognitive science , cognition , catastrophe theory , perception , ecology , process (computing) , psychology , organism , epistemology , computer science , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , biology , philosophy , engineering , paleontology , geotechnical engineering , operating system
Gibson's (1966) ecological formulation of perceptual processes as abstracted systems, the tenets and units of neobehaviorism as formulated within psychobiology and the experimental analysis of behavior, and the topological approaches of mathematical biology as formulated by Rashevsky (1951, 1960) and Thom (1975) are the elemental concepts that form the basis of the theory presented in this paper. A cognitive or decision process of individual human beings—living systems at the organism level—emerges as a one‐step, match‐contrast, serial pattern embedded as a triplet of Gibson frames in a five‐dimensional butterfly catastrophe. Some of the experimental, clinical and philosophical implications of a “catastrophic” formulation of induction are discussed.