Learning and behavior: a rediscovery of neurophysiologists

Abstract

Between 1950 and 1970, neurophysiolcgists set great store by leaming but often considered behavior as a concatenation of, conditioned or unconditioned, reflexes. When, after 1970, they used operant conditioning procedures to refine behavior in animals, they saw thern rnerely as a means of revealing mental entibes reflected in the observed behavioral and biological facts. Likewise, with the arrival of the computer in the laboratory, they explained behavior in terms of the programs, routines, error << detectors >> and comparators assumed to be found in the brain. Nowadays, the computational model cannot account for the plasticity of the central nervous system in the adult, whereas the selectionist model, which more and more researchers are adopting, does go some way to explaining each individual's own nerve reorganization and also has the advantage of retaining his/her essential, historical dimensión.