Main trends of research in the social and human ... - unesdoc - Unesco

Psychology 237
Lastly, with Fessard we have the search for abstract models, both probabilist
and algebraic, for the actual conditioning process. Fessard notes first of all
that learning (at least with adults) is not dependent on the growth of new nerve
terminals or of new synapses and therefore represents only a new functioning of
already formed junctions. He then builds up a lattice pattern, all the elements of
which have identical properties (hence the part played by historical determination
in the choice of preferential paths), with the possibility of introducing a
certain homeostatic stability despite the substitution of paths. This substitution
is due to the stochastic nature of the system, in which the lattice is presented
as a ‘subordinate stochastic lattice’. We say ‘stochastic’ because for each element
of the system there is a certain probabilty of discharge, and ‘subordinate’
because it is connected with other similar neuronic fields that influence it.
We thus see that, physiologically, conditioning has long ceased to be linked
to a single scale of phenomena, which made possible reductions that were assumed
to be processes higher than this scale, which was considered lower. Firstly,
it controls all kinds of mechanisms of a lower order, while depending on subcortical
systems. Secondly, the increasingly refined theoretical elaboration that
it gives rise to makes it comparable to many regulatory systems of a higher order
and to algebraic and probabilist structures that are to be found at every intelligence
level.
From the point of view of psychological behaviour, conditioning has given
rise to a similar dialectic. The first thing that was noticed was that the conditioned
reflex was not stable by itself and became stable only within wider forms of
conduct capable of counterbalancing it: Pavlov’s dog stops slavering if the
ringing that represents the acquired stimulus is no longer followed by food.
Consequently, the association as such is not a natural and constant unity and
operates only within a broader framework embracing the initial need and its
final satisfaction. The association is therefore an assimilation, with the sound
heard having a meaning only in so far as it is assimilated to the food pattern.
Even then it is an anticipatory assimilation, since the signal announces its coming
but not its presence. Similarly, the conditioning that occurs in the learning of
speech acquires meaning and stability only in a context of imitation, of significant
exchange, and so on.
In short, the history of ideas as far as the conditioned reflex is concerned,
which is a very typical example, shows from every point of view why and how
reductionist views are gradually giving way to a trend that involves a dialectic
of levels and a relational assimilation of the higher to the lower and vice versa.
HI. Turning now from this particular example to more general considerations,
we should, in order to understand the latest trends in psychology as seen in its
relationship to biology,” say something about research into the relations be-
tween behaviour, or more especially cognitive functions, and organic regulations.
The genome was long regarded by biologists as an atomistic unit made up
of independent genes entirely separated from the soma and each bearing hered-
itary or genotypic characteristics that were merely transmitted, subject to
generally disturbing mutations and genetic combinations due to amphimixis.