Xref: utzoo sci.misc:2843 sci.psychology:1156 comp.ai:2722 comp.ai.neural-nets:342 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) Newsgroups: sci.misc,sci.psychology,comp.ai,comp.ai.neural-nets Subject: Re: Learned Behavior vs. Hard-Wired Behavior Message-ID: <5959@hoptoad.uucp> Date: 28 Nov 88 20:16:38 GMT References: <3978@charon.unm.edu> <1753@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco Lines: 43 In article <1753@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> spam@clutx.clarkson.edu (Roger Gonzalez) wrote: >Could people please email me a list of neural "mechanisms" that >are probably hard-wired into humans (or other critters). I'm >looking for things like pain, sexual/maternal(?) attraction, >curiosity, urge to survive, etc. ... things that are not learned. >I'm working in neural networks, and I'm basically looking at (for example) >the future problem of a very unmotivated simu-beast. I decided that >I should probably give it curiosity for starters or something similar >to make it want to explore. Any help would be appreciated. The best starting point in my opinion would be Skinnerian behaviorism. The basic mechanisms of operant conditioning have been found in all animals capable of emitting operants, and so are the closest thing we know to a "hard-wired" basis of behavior. Of course, it takes at least one semester of graduate-level study to really understand operant conditioning, so don't expect to be able to jump right in and start coding. Also remember that any simulation which does *not* obey the rules of operant conditioning will not be an accurate simulation of an animal. On a related point that's been brought up in this discussion, I think some people are getting confused on some developmental points. The fact that we can interrupt the development of a behavior does not mean the behavior is purely learned. The classic example involves the kitten in a harness experiments; if kittens aren't allowed to wander, but are kept in a harness through certain phases of development, then they won't extend their paws when placed near a surface. That doesn't mean that the paw extension is learned, only that its development depends on certain environmental factors present in the lives of all healthy kittens in the wild. The fact that it is present in all healthy cats suggests that it is innate. Nature vs. nurture is one of the oldest and least resolvable debates in psychology. Until we can actually decode genomes, which may well be two centuries from now, we won't have any real way to tell whether the average behavior is learned or innate. Mother-bonding is innate, and operant conditioning is innate. That's about all we can say now. -- Tim Maroney, Consultant, Eclectic Software, sun!hoptoad!tim "Those who restrain desire, so so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place & governs the unwilling." - Blake, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"