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Does the study of feeding behaviour benefit from a teleonomic framework?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2007

Ilias Kyriazakis  and
Jon E. L. Day
Ilias Kyriazakis
Affiliation:
Animal Biology Division, Scottish Agricultural College, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, UK
Jon E. L. Day
Affiliation:
ADAS Terrington, Terrington St. Clements, King's Lynn, Norfolk PE34 4PW, UK
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Abstract

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In this paper we respond to the criticisms of Provenza et al. (1998) that our framework of learning and feeding motivation (Day et al. 1998) resorts to higher order goals, which cannot be falsified by experimentation. We assert that in order to be able to predict the feeding behaviour of animals we first need to understand what they are trying to achieve (i.e. invoke teleonomy). We then detail our framework in such terms that one could envisage experiments that could quantitatively test its predictions. We contend that the framework of ‘the self-organization of behaviour’ proposed by Provenza et al. (1998) cannot lead to such quantitative predictions, since it is invoked to describe feeding behaviour of animals a posteriori. It is our own desire, by contrast, to assess feeding behaviour a priori, which leads us to propose and defend our framework of learning and feeding motivation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Nutrition Research Reviews , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , December 1998 , pp. 223 - 229
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 1998

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