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An Objective Approach to Measurement of Behavior

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

R. Rodriguez Delgado  and
J. M. R. Delgado
R. Rodriguez Delgado
Affiliation:
Departments of Physiology & Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven
J. M. R. Delgado
Affiliation:
Departments of Physiology & Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven
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Abstract

Theoretical problems concerning concepts of systems and measurement of behavior were encountered during experimental studies of the effects of electrical stimulation of the brain on the social behavior of a monkey colony. General problems involved in the description and measurement of behavior of natural systems, and especially of organisms are discussed.

In animals with differentiated brain the general process of stimulation may be divided into four subprocesses: input, throughput, transput and output.

Categories of behavior, temporal and spatial units, and logical rules of homogeneity for sorting data and comparing measurements and categories, are discussed. Simple behavioral units are divided into: 1. Individual a. static or postural b. dynamic or gestural 2. Social a. static b. dynamic. Complex behavior is divided into: 1. Simultaneous 2. Sequential 3. Syntactic 4. Roles.

The process of interpretation of data by the observer is assumed to be dependent upon actual behavior of the system, techniques of observation and experimentation, theoretical and technical processes of analysis, and synthesis and integration of data. Expression of behavior in mathematical terms insures greater accuracy than descriptive methods and enables data to be processed with computers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , July 1962 , pp. 253 - 268
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1962

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Footnotes

∗∗

This research was supported by grants from the Foundations’ Fund for Research in Psychiatry, the Neuro-Research Foundation, the U. S. Public Health Service and the Office of Naval Research.

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