The Problem of the Object of Study in the Dynamical Approach in Cognitive Science: A Philosophical Appraisal based on R. Beer?s Research Program in Computational Neuroethology

VENTURELLI, NICOLÁS

Miraflores de las Sierra, Madrid

Workshop; 12th European Workshop on Ecological Psychology; 2012

UAM Perception and Action Research Group

I tackle the problem of the delimitation and configuration of the object of psychological study, attending particularly to the recent dynamical approach in the cognitive sciences (van Gelder & Port, 1995; Beer, 2000). I defend the idea of a considerable, discernibly Gibsonian, reconfiguration of the object of study which can be defined in terms of the formative principles of adaptive behavior, abstract principles derived from agent-environment interaction dynamics. To sustain this claim, I focus on the methodological restrictions defining a representative line of dynamicist work: the categorical perception model in computational neuroetology developed by Randall Beer (1996, 2003). By analyzing this model, I highlight the way a group of phenomena is successfully transformed into a scientific domain upon which certain problematic issues become treatable through the specific tools available in the context of current dynamical research.