Efference and Knowledge: Psyc Call for Commentators

Jarvilehto: Efference and Knowledge The target article whose abstract appears below has just appeared in PSYCOLOQUY, a refereed journal of Open Peer Commentary sponsored by the American Psychological Association. Qualified professional biobehavioral, neural or cognitive scientists are hereby invited to submit Open Peer Commentary on it. Please email for Instructions if you are not familiar with format or acceptance criteria for PSYCOLOQUY commentaries (all submissions are refereed). To submit articles and commentaries or to seek information: EMAIL: psyc(a)pucc.princeton.edu URL: http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/psyc.html http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/psyc RATIONALE FOR SOLICITING COMMENTARY: On the basis of experimental data plus a simple thought experiment, it is argued that the senses should not be considered as transmitting environmental information to an organism. Rather, they are part of a dynamical organism-environment system in which efferent influences on the sensory receptors are especially critical. This view has both experimental and philosophical implications for understanding knowledge formation on which commentary is invited from psychophysicists, sensory physiologists, developmental neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, computational modelers, information theorists, Gibsonians, Gestaltists, and philosophers. Full text of article available at: http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/cgi/psyc/newpsy?9.41 or: ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/Psycoloquy/1998.volume.9/psyc.98.9.41.ef… ----------------------------------------------------------------------- psycoloquy.98.9.41.efference-knowledge.1.jarvilehto Sun Sep 27 1998 ISSN 1055-0143 (41 paragraphs, 28 references, 623 lines) PSYCOLOQUY is sponsored by the American Psychological Association (APA) Copyright 1998 Timo Jarvilehto EFFERENT INFLUENCES ON RECEPTORS IN KNOWLEDGE FORMATION Timo Jarvilehto Department of Behavioral Sciences, University of Oulu, Finland tjarvile(a)ktk.oulu.fi http://wwwedu.oulu.fi/ktleng/ktleng.htm ABSTRACT: This target article suggests a new interpretation of efferent influences on sensory receptor activity and the role of the senses in forming knowledge. Experimental data and a thought experiment about a hypothetical motor-only organism suggest that the senses are not transmitters of environmental information; rather, they create a direct connection between the organism and the environment that makes possible a dynamic organism-environment system. In this system efferent influences on receptor activity are especially critical, because with their help the receptors can be adjusted in relation to the parts of the environment that are most important in achieving behavioral results. Perception joins new parts of the environment to the organism-environment system; thus knowledge is formed by perception through a reorganization (a widening and differentiation) of the organism-environment system rather than through the transmission of information from the environment. With the help of efferent effects on receptors, each organism creates its own particular world. These considerations have implications for experimental work in the neurophysiology and psychology of perception as well as for the philosophy of knowledge formation. KEYWORDS: afference, artificial life, efference, epistemology, evolution, Gibson, knowledge, motor theory, movement, perception, receptors, robotics, sensation, sensorimotor systems, situatedness