Abstract
I discuss three issues about perceptual-motor development from a dynamical systems perspective: (1) the brain-behavior relation, (2) flexibility and stability of behavior, and (3) emergent functions. Johnson adopts a correlational approach to infer brain-behavior relationships, implying that behavior may be reduced to elemental properties (e.g., nerve tracts). In a dynamical approach, there is a reductionism in which a universal set of principles holds in large and complex aggregates, regardless of their structural embodiment. Bloch highlights the debate on the origin of coordination. I discuss the mass-spring model as a way of understanding how the CNS and the biomechanical properties of the body may both contribute to coordination and control. Bloch proposes an asymmetry in rate of development among systems becoming coordinated with each other. I propose that this illustrates the general principle in dynamical systems of new functions emerging from the interaction of aggregates of functional components.
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Goldfield, E.C. (1990). Early Perceptual-Motor Development: A Dynamical Systems Perspective. In: Bloch, H., Bertenthal, B.I. (eds) Sensory-Motor Organizations and Development in Infancy and Early Childhood. NATO ASI Series, vol 56. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2071-2_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2071-2_14
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