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From: hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath)
Newsgroups: sci.psychology,rec.birds,sci.bio
Subject: Re: Intelligent Parrots, or Self-deception and Gullibility.
Message-ID: <2279@ttidca.TTI.COM>
Date: 11 Apr 88 17:47:49 GMT
References: <1988Mar4.162334.18184@utzoo.uucp> <4299@blia.BLI.COM> <1988Mar9.132722.3364@mntgfx.mentor.com> <2495@geac.UUCP> <2535@saturn.ucsc.edu> <762@actnyc.UUCP> <2231@ttidca.TTI.COM> <777@actnyc.UUCP>
Reply-To: hollombe@ttidcb.tti.com (The Polymath)
Organization: The Cat Factory
Lines: 27

In article <777@actnyc.UUCP> gcf@actnyc.UUCP (Gordon Fitch) writes:
.In article <2231@ttidca.TTI.COM> hollombe@ttidcb.tti.com (The Polymath) writes:
..There's some question whether _any_ behavior is hard-wired in any creature
..above the level of insect...[example of chick scratching for food,
..but not when restrained by harness, etc.]..
.
. ... I take it you're saying that the chick sort of behaves at random and
.finds some behaviors rewarded, and its "programming" is no more complex
.than to remember which behaviors were rewarded.  ...

For the record, I neither said nor intended any such thing.  In fact, I
didn't propose any mechanism or explanation, merely reported the facts, as
I know them, as a counter-example to the concept of instinct.  I'm not a
Skinnerian, nor even much of a behaviorist, though I find some of their
techniques useful over a limited domain. (N.B.:  Discussions of
behaviorism vs. other schools of psychology tend to take on overtones of
religion fairly quickly.  I prefer to avoid debating the subject.  Believe
what you want, but leave me out of it).

I think it's reasonable to assume humans are more complex than birds, or
most other animals.  I doubt there's anything in human makeup that could
be identified as a hard-wired instinct.

-- 
The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, hollombe@TTI.COM)   Illegitimati Nil
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