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JPRS: 19,100
7 May 1963
A/2 (NO)
OTS: 63-21782
0 3/41
Pargamming & People.
A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PSYCHIC CONTROL
AND REGULATION IN AUTOMATA
by L. M. Bekker
- USSR -
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FOREWORD
This publication was prepared under contract for the
Joint Publications Research Service as a translation
or foreign-language research service to the various
federal government departments.
The contents of this material in no way represent the
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or of the parties to any distribution arrangement.
1
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JPRS :
19,100
A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PSYCHIC CONTROL
AND REGULATION IN AUTOMATA
- UŚSR -
Following is the translation of an article by L. M.
Bekker in the Russian-language publication Voprosy
filosofii (Problems of Philosophy), No 2, 1963, pages
70-81./
The idea of the uniqueness of the psychic is one of the
gnoseological foundations of idealism. For the noncomparability
of a phenomenon with any other reality leads to the idea of its
substantiality. The proposition of the substantiality of the
psychic is inevitably related also with the recognition of intro-
spection as the only method of psychological investigation. Covert
forms of these tendencies even now are still persisting in the
materialistic science on the psyche. The approach realized through
modern cybernetics to the nature of reflection by its very nature
precludes the idea of the noncomparability of the psychic and leads
to a conclusive surmounting of the traditional errors impeding sci-
entific progress. The cybernetic approach to the problem of reflec-
tion unfolds new constructive means for its examination mainly by
way of the following two interrelated aspects.
I. The general-cybernetic teaching on the production, trans-
mission, storage, and utilization of information, revealing the
quantitative and qualitative, the structural characteristics as
informational processes in their various forms and levels, yields
a system of concepts which can be used in analyzing psychic pro-
cesses (in their informational aspects) as a special form of
informational phenomena. In so doing we in fact eliminate the
dualistic position of the absolute uniqueness of the psychic,
uncover a constructive scientific approach for its examination,
revealing the specific character of the particular through the
general, and giving concrete expression to the most important
position of V. I. Lenin on reflection as a general property of
matter, in relation to which psychic reflection is its higher,
though particular form.
II. The general principles of the functioning of control
systems. revealed by cybernetics form the basis for a comparative
analysis of the regulating function of signals of information at
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.... .
various levels. In its turn, analysis of how reflection "works"
and what are the differences in its working function at its various
levels affords a fruitful investigation of methods of organizing
reflection processes. This approach is essentially important for
still another reason, that it equips investigation with the strictly
objective, and in addition with a wholly adequate method of study-
ing psychic reflection. This leads"to' the actual elimination of the
remnants of the introspectionist approach toward methods of inves-
tigating the psychic.
The reflex theory of the psychic developed by I. M. Sechencv
represented the higher level of voluntary regulation of action as a
special case of psychic regulation, and psychic regulation of action
itself -- as a special manifestation of the general reflex principle
of performance of the nervous system. The general theory of control
created by cybernetics; realizing the next stage of scientific gen-
eralization was synthesis, represented this reflex. regulation of
function as a special case of general principle of performance of
control system, in which information circulates along a closed
circuit. The scheme of the reflex circuit lying at the base of
the mechanism of behavior regulation is one of the cases of a
control circuit working on the principle of feedback.
Discovering a commonness between the structural system and
the functional principle of informatics circulating in an objecti-
val adaptive or transforming (by labor) effort of man :also in
operations of automatic systems reveals the real possibility of
making a concrete comparative analysis of these systems. . The goal
of such an analysis is to establish the specific character of the
programming and regulating function of psychic processes as infor-
mation signals in comparison with the regulating function of infor-
mation signals controlling the dynamics of working operations in
automatic systems.
The task of revealing this specific character of psychic
regulations of objectival work actions within the limits of an
elementary senscry level of regulating systems (sensations, per-
ceptions, and concepts) is the subject of the present article.
But it is relevant to this starting level to deal here. only with
that area of the questions, which is related to the qualitative,
structural features of sensory signals and to. the role of these
features in the control process.
The principle of programming and the method of regulation
realized in objectival work actions of man finds its ultimate .
expression in the dynamics of the executive organo acting on the
object being transformed. The organization of the functions. of
the working organs that carry out the program of action saryes
as the most adequate objective indicator of the psychic. processes.
programming and regulating the action. Therefore, the characteristic
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of control principles over the objectival action is associated with
the specific function of the executive organs of man, chiefly the
human hand as an organ of work. The main feature of the human hand
as an executive organ compared to the executive organs of any auto-
matic device (including also a mechanical hand) consists in its high
functional versatility (related to the number of degrees of freedom),
which enables practically an unlimited class of motor tasks to be
solved with the same morphologically unaltered structure. The most
fanciful special 'depiction of a motion adequately reproducing the
structure of the object being acted upon can be realized by the
working points of the hand as an executive organ. The versatility
and variability is kinematically limited here only by limits of
reach (extent of the motor field), and dynamically -- by the "resis-
tance of materials". Providing the freedom of accomplishing an
unlimited diversity of motor solutions, the very design of the hand
is not restricted to any specific objectival program of movements.
The structure of the hand has neither a program nor individual
executive operations built in, still less any algorithmic sequence
of such operations.
Serving as functions of reflex effects carrying out action
are efferent nerve codes of command information, activating the
executive organ and controlling its performance. However, as has
been shown by studies of the structure of movements (N. A. Bern-
shteyn), effector codes cannot serve as the original program car-
riers for the action realized by the working organs. This propo-
sition is vividly substantiated by the factual material of studies
of motor habits, indicating that the development of habits does
not occur through formation of a fixed sequence of movements, as
it needs must occur if the program carrier of the actions was the
effector command information.
We must, therefore, conclude that the programming of objec-
tival work actions of man and the specific character of their reg-
ulation must be sought for in the structure of the guiding /osvedom-
itel'naya/ information inherent in the original regulating function.
The objectival structure of the executive acts of man derived
from the objectival structure of the psychic processes, which are
the signals of the guiding information regulating the action. It
is precisely this function of sensory imaging that I. M. Sechenov
pointed to when he wrote that "sensation is everywhere a regulator
of motion."
The process of technical progress and mechanization of labor
has interrupted the reflex circuit of elementary objectival action
and has interposed between the executive organs of man and the
final object of labor activity an. ever-increasing intermediate
links. Technological, power, and transport functions of human
activity have been wholly converted to machine links of the
control circuit. Left for the actions of man's working organs
is the function of control. Man has become the controlling link
of the system. Controlling action is increasingly being reduced,
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and in relation to the ultimate object of working activity, is
increasingly losing its developed objectival structure, being
turned into a signal-code of command information (motor reactions
of the operator at control panels). With the transition from
direct. control by machines to remote control, the objectival
character of this control and the guiding information is being
displaced and lost, the guiding information being received by
the operator in coded form as various kinds of indications (instru-
ment dials, sign indications, diagrams on charts). However, losing
its directly objectival character in relation to the ultimate
object of labor, man's perception and action wholly retain its
objectival structure in relation to their direct objects -- the
indicating equipment and the control organ. This objectivalness
of the structure of perception and action in relation to their
direct objects lies at the basis of the versatility, generaliza-
bility, and relative universality of the controlling operations of
man, which are a particular case of the general variability and
universality of human objectival action.
Thus a contradiction has arisen between the code character
of guiding and command information in relation to the ultimate
object of action and the objectival structure of perception and
action in relation to their direct objects. This contradiction
lies at the basis of two opposing trends in the development of
modern systems of remote control over production processes. The
first trend consists in the guiding information in control systems
becoming similar to the directly objectival forms ( three-dimensional
diagrams, tele- and radio-locating representations, etc. ) and the
imparting of the highest possible structural commonness of' the sen-
sory and motor components of action. This trend of making the
controlling operation similar to the functional scheme of objec-
tival action derives from man's requirements as a link in the
control system and is related to the need for preserving these
functions for him. The second trend in the development of remote
control systems is manifest in the effort to replace the structure.
of guiding and command information and operation by signals of
coded information based on specific algorithms. Carrying out this
trend will lead to the automation of man's controlling operations,
that is, to the development of systems of automatic control.
This line of development aimed at displacing the guiding
and command information find its high point in the principles of
automatic system functioning. From this point of view it is not
a chance matter that in technical systems information transmitted
in the form of codes is decoded only in those communication chan-
nels at the exit of which the information is received at a sensory
access point of man ( televisor, a radio-locater). At the exit of
such channels the coded information, being decoded, is converted
into an image. In systems of automatic control, however, guiding
information undergoes only recoding and is nowhere converted into
images. This is the essential feature of such systems.
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Another fundamentally important characteristic of control
principles in automatic systems is that, in spite of the tendency
to be free from the fixed character of the program in the design
and to thus make for the universality of the system, the program
of system performance still remains as it were partially fixed
in the design. In particular this refers to the program of elemen-
tary operations built into the design of the system's working organs.
In various control systems there is a different distribution of pro-
gram components between the system design and the information enter-
ing the system. But even in those program parts, which are given
by information, the elemental relationship of each value of the
guiding information signal with the states of the controlling
executive organ corresponding to it is determined by the design .
(for example, in automatic control systems by the flash of zenith
artillery).
From this point of view it is very indicative that the use
of universal computers as components of automatic control systems
is complicated by the fact that they require appropriate equipment
for intake and outflow of information, but the design of the latter
depends essentially on the specific character of the automatic
system. It is also important in this regard to note that in the
single type of automatic systems with unfixed design (which thus
does not feature a set program), in the so-called indeterminate
self-organizing systems, the control process is accomplished on
the basis of random search or on a "trial and error" method. The
total absence of a fixed specific program in the design thus con-
demns the system to the way of blind search (finding ways of
optimizating, which is presently the object of numerous inves-
tigations).
The indicated features of principles of control realized
in automatic systems on reasonable grounds considerably restrict
the versatility, the interference-proof character, and the reli-
ability of functioning of theses systems.
The goal of a comparative investigation of the main charac-
teristics of the sensory regulation of human actions and of a
study of control methods in automatic systems consists in discover-
ing the differences between these two categories on the basis of
those general principles of control, whose specific particular
manifestation constitutes both kinds of control under comparison.
Analysis allows us to discover an essential difference in
the interrelationship of information and design in the process of
carrying out a program of operations by man and by an automatic
system. As was indicated, in its very design the automatic sys-
tem has partially built in the program for carrying out its
operations. In the first place, this refers to the system inherent
in the working organs, the very structure of which is built into
.
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the program of the corresponding executive operations. The design
entails in itself fixation and other program components in various
automatic systems, as occurs for example in systems using analogue
computers, whose design entails in its. program the transformation of
information incoming to the system.
In man the design of his working organs and all the other
links of the reflex mechanism of objectival action does not intro-
duce any individual specific program. The role of design consists
here in that it sets up the morphological foundation for possibil-
ities of carrying out any objectival kinematic structure of action.
A program of actions or operations ultimately is determined
only by two factors -- the design of the system or the character.
istics of the information circulating through its circuit. There-
fore, the differing roles of design in programming operations in
both systems can be related only to the different characteristics
of information in these systems. Quantitative characteristics of
informational processes occurring in both systems in themselves
cannot serve as the basis for the differences in the role that
design plays which are of interest to us. In regard to the passing
capacity and rate of operation performance the advantages are clearly
held by automatic machines. More improved controlling functions of
informational processes not requiring that programming be based on
system design would scarcely derive from a restricted passing capac-
ity and speed of operation that man displays compared to the auto-
matic machine. Based on this, the existence of the fundamental
differences referred to between the systems under comparison in
distributing the program between information and design inevit-
ably leads to the conclusion that the differences in the role
that design plays in realizing the program can be found only in
the substantial difference in qualitative structural character-
istics of the information signals circulating in the system and
inherent in the specific program itself.
Analysis of the functioning of all the main kinds of con-
trol systems supports the conclusion that in systems of rigid
control and in regulating systems, as also true in self-adjusting
automatic systems, the information signals inherent to given pro-
gram components exist in the form of continuous or discrete codes.
-
This conclusion derives directly from the characteristic of
those transformations of information which occur in sensory cell-
pickups _element-datchik/, in central amplifying converter links
of the regulator, and in executive equipment. From the very
essence of the physical characteristics of these processes we
find that coding of the incoming information occurs here into
the alphabet of the communication channel, which is a member of
the control circuit. Circulating along the circuit, the infor-
mation undergoes several recodings, leaving it, however, in a
coded form.
In the objectival actions of man the ultimate stage of
the conversion of command information is represented by the
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systems of movements carried out by the "working point" of the execu-
tive organs which draws near the object and acts on it. From their
very nature these motor structures are similar to the object and to
the ultimate product of action, and in this sense they are not a
code but a motor reproduction of the object's structure. Such an
objectival character of the motor structures of human action can-
not be determined, as has been mentioned, either by the design of
the executive organ, for they have no concrete program inherent to
them, or by the codes of the executive effector information, for
these codes are not fixed in the establishment of habits with action.
The source of this objectival : character of the motor structure here
can only be the guiding information. In order that signals of the lat-
ter can give and adequately receive objectival programs of action, the
signals themselves must inevitably be the representation of objects
of these actions as they occur and in the final state. No other
source and carrier of the objectival program of action, nor its
adequacy to the object has analysis here been able to discover.
The presence of the necessary conjunction of the code form
of information with the partial fixation of the program in the
system designed, and in particular in the structure of its working
organs, indicates that in and of itself information circulating in
the form of codes cannot wholly supply the geometrically objectival,
and kinematic characteristics of the working operations. Therefore,
the part of the program which cannot be determined by information
must be fixed by the design. In distinction to this information
signals having the form of objectival images program and regulate
the entire structural kinematic characteristics of human action
without the support of a program built into the design. The design
foundation here consists in revealing the biomechanical and psyco-
physiological possibilities for realizing any program of objectival
working and controlling operations. Such essential differences in
the regular defunctions of these two forms of signals are obviously
related to the fundamental differences between representation and
code in the very form of their organization.
Every signal of information is a set of states or elements,
ordered appropriately to the set of elements of the information
source. It is precisely this preservation of the corresponding
orderedness of its states that makes the signal the carrier of
information of its source. But the distorting effect of any noise
or interference consists precisely in disarranging the corresponding
orderedness of the signal elements.
Based on the nature of the information signals as a defi-
nitely ordered set of elements, there is reason to believe that
the differences between code and representation as forms of infor-
mation signals must lie along the line of the properties of the
original elements and the character of how these elements were
ordered in the set. From this point of view the essence of the
code form of information signals is clear enough. Here the only
requirement for the set of signal states is an isomorphic .
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correspondence to the set of source elements. The essence of iso-
morphism consists, as is known, in the pairwise single-valued
correspondence of the elements of one set to the elements of
another set and the pairwise single-valued correspondence of the
transformation operations determining the conversion from one ele-
ment to another in both sets. As to the physical properties and
spatio-temporal characteristics of the elements of both sets isc-
morphism in general is indifferent. But as to the method under
which the elements of both sets are ordered isomorphism presents
no other requirements besides that of the single-valued corre-
spondence referred to. Under the conditions that this correspond-
ence is preserved the internal structure of the set, the spatio-
temporal organization of its elements, can be arbitrary,, since its
changes do not affect the essence of the isomorphic relationships.
Since it is specifically this single-valued correspondence of the
elements of two sets and their transformations that make the set
of elements of the information signal a code of its source, the con-
dition of isomorphism is a necessary and sufficient determinant of
the code nature of the information signals.
In regard to the information signals organized in the form
of images, the situation is substantially otherwise. The isomor-
phism requirement is unconditionally necessary also in relation to
the image, for it is general for any kind of information signal.
Without the isomorphic relationship of the sets there is no infor-
mation signal. But, though necessary, this condition is not here
sufficient. In order that the information signal be not only a
code, but also an image, its characteristics must include additional
requirements. Analysis shows (cf L. M. Vekker and B. F. Lomov, "The
Sensory Image as Representation," Voprosy filosofii, No 4, 1961)
that such additional requirements also affecting the properties of
the elements of the set constituting the signal, and methods of
ordering these elements reduce
to
the
following. In order
that the information signal be not only a code of its source, but an
image of any of its properties, it is first of all necessary that
-the properties of the elements of the set forming the signal be
reproduced by the corresponding physical characteristics of the
elements of the set comprising the source, and in the second place,
that the spatio-temporal orderedness of the elements of the set
forming the signal not. only isomorphously correspond to the order-
edness of the set of elements constituting the source but also
adequately structurally reproduce. this orderedness, as occurs, for
example, in photographic or television images. Observance of both
these additional requirements also makes the information signal a
representation of the object.
Since the representation satisfies the conditions of iso-
morphism, it still remains a code, but here the commonness shared
by the requirements additionally stipulated for the signal which
is a representation gives rise to substantial differences between
the representation and the code. Thus, isomorphism, a necessary
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command information determine the element-by-element, pairwise cor-
respondence of the values of both signals .. But they neither set
nor. determine the principles of internal orderedness of elements
in the sets forming the signals of guiding and command information.
Therefore, the principle of the orderedness of the signal elements,
which signal. would determine the objectival structure of the execu-
tive reactions ;. the adequate object of action, cannot be set by the
code form of the signal. This stems from the very nature of the
code form of information, which is indifferent to the internal
orderedness of the. elements of the correlated sets and requires
only their single-valued correspondence. Since the code form of
information signal does not consist in the integrally objectival,
structural characteristics of the information source, being at the
same time. the object of action, it yields no sort of spatio-geomet-
ric, and spatio-dynamic foundations for programing routes of
.. motion of the working organs. Not containing a single-valued
spatio-geometric structure, the code cannot of itself provide
the kinematics of motion of the executive organs. It is precisely
because of this that the realization of the program of operations
in automatic systems, since they operate with the code form of
information signals, must be based on geometrical characteristics
of the program being built into the derign of the system. In this
way the program components are set in the design of the executive,
working organs of the system and in accordance with the design of
the executive elements of the automatic regulators. As to the
regulating function of the image-signals the situation turns out
substantially different.
The nature of the relationship between command information
and guiding derives from the relationship of guiding information
to its source. Just as for the case of the relationships of image-
signals to the information source, for the relationships of command
Information to guiding information existing in the form of images
the condition of isomorphism of the sets of elements is a necessary,
but an insufficient determinant of the mutual relationships. As was
shown, for the image in comparison to the code there is not only a
pairwise correspondence between the elements of the signal and those
of the source, but also a commonness of the principle of their spatio-
temporal orderedness. Correspondingly, in distinction to the code-
signals between command and guiding information we require. here not
simply an element-by-element correspondence, indifferent to the
orderedness of the elements within each of the sets, but a com-
monness of the principles of their orderedness. Deserving the
properties. of the elements and the adequate source of information,
their orderedness, the image reproduces the physical and the spatial
structure .of the objects. And exhibiting the dynamic, and geometric
objectival characteristics, the image can set the spatial character-
istics of the routes of motion realizing the operation with this
object. The objectival-structural dynamic and geometric charac-
teristics of the image determine its kinematics of operations
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directed toward the object. Here, the geometry of how the object is
represented against the background of a specific spatial situation
and the kinematics of how the object is dealt with are correlated
not only element-by-element, but also structurally.
In carrying out the regulating function through code signals
of information, the command and the guiding information are corre-
lated to each other as two sets, being codes of the information
source -- the object of action.
Under an optimal realization of the regulating function of
the image-signals, the guiding information and the ultimate form
of the transformations of the command information -- the system of
movements -- are correlated to each other as two sets, whose order-
edness reproduces the structure of the object of action. And this
means that not only each element of the projectory of movement can
be single-valuedly compared with the corresponding element of the
image, but also that the motor structure as a whole reproduces the
orderedness of the image elements, and through the agency of the
latter, the structure of the object of action as well. The geometry
and topology of the image of the object and the conditions of action
contain potentially the routes of the possible movements realizing
the operation on the given object. Thus, for example, a psychic
image of a perceived or represented object contains in itself the
routes of movements for reproducing this object (in a drawing, in
marble, etc. ). in more complex instances and in the general case
the kinematics of movement derive not only from the geometric or
topological, but also from the power components of the image. But
the power components of the image, even though they do not coincide
with the elementary geometrical logic of the object (they "do not
lead there", from the expression of N. A. Bernshteyn), are organized
in spatio-objectival structures determining the kinematics of the
corresponding motor operations.
This is expressly why, in distinction to code-signals that
information-sig als organized in the form of images cnn program
and regulate the motor functions of the executive organs without
depending on specifically geometric components of the program being
built into the design of the system.
From this derives the principle of the correlation of infor-
mation with the design of the system, the principle consisting in
the fact that the design of the controlling system of psychic reg-
ulation, not being fixed by any definite program of specifically
executive or controlling operation, unfolds within definite limits
optimal possibilities for realizing any objectival program of trans-
port, technological, or controlling operations. This is also
related to the absence of any transcription of a program of exec-
utive and controlling operations in the design of the executive
organs of man, as well as being related to the universality of
his executive and controlling functions.
The problem consists in how, from the above characterized
principle of programing and regulating of actions by image-signals,
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:
to derive the main specific features of psychic control in comparison
to regulation of operations in automatic systems.
The present analysis makes such a step possible only in a most
general form, applicable to several of only the most essential stages.
1. The absence of any fixed character of the program of
action in the executive organs and the fact that this program is
derived from the guiding information organized in the form of
images is expressed in two interrelated points: a) the same exec-
utive organ of man (for example, the main executive organ -- the
hand) can realize an unlimited diversity of objectival-motor pro-
grams, b) the same program, yielding the structure of the image-
signals directly forming in the process of perception or being the
product of its intellectual treatment can be realized by various
executive organs (cf N. A. Bernshteyn, O postroyenii dvizheniy.
/On the Structure of Motions/, Moscow, 1947, page 91). Both the
universality of the motor programs realized by the same organ,
and the indicated broad replaceability of the executive organs
carrying out the same program derive clearly from the absence of
any fixed character of the program in the design of the organ and
from the method of obtaining the program, under which it is wholly
drawn from the objectival structure of the image-signal. Exhibit-
ing, in distinction to the code-signal. an orderedness of its
elements adequately reproducing the structure of the object of
action, and containing in itself the routes of movements carry-
ing out the corresponding operations, the image-signal forms
the kinematic of functioning of not just one, but within the
limits of any executive organ (to the extent that a sufficient
number of degrees of freedom exists).
2. The image of the object and the conditions of action
reproduce the geometry of three-dimensional space or two-dimen-
sional surface. The route of movement realizing the attainment
of this object is always a line, forming in some way in the
structure of the given region of space or the given surface.
But the structure of the given region of space or surface includes
not a single trajectory of possible movement, but an entire family
or unlimited set of lines lying on the given surface. Even in the
case in which the image of the object is a line, for example, the
line of a contour, this single line of the contour contains in
itself a set of various trajectories lying on it, reproducing
the same total contour. Thus, the geometry of the image of the
object and conditions of action, including also energetic, force
components, potentially determine the kinematics of an entire
family of routes of movements realizing the attainment of the
given object. From this correlation between the geometry and
the topology of the image of the object and (the conditions) of
action, on the one hand, and the kinematics of the corresponding
trajectories of movement, on the other, derives such an essential
characteristic of psychic control, its variability.
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3. From this same general principle derives another main
feature of psychic control, also intimately related to variability,
its generality. There are two main forms of the generality of motor
behavior:
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a) the generality of motor responses under an unaltered gen-
eral situation of action (the response of generalization),
b) the generality of actions in a transition from one situ-
ation to another (the stimulus of generalization).
The first form of generality, that is, the generality of
motor responses, consists in that the same motor task. under an
unchanged general. structure of the objectival situation can be
accomplished by various approaches, using various routes of move-
ment and procedures of action.
The spatio-temporal structure of the objectival image of
the situation of action includes, as was indicated, an entire
family of routes of movements, contained in the general geometrical-
dynamic structure of the image. In each individual case of reali-
zation of the motor solution, a selection is made of one of the
routes and corresponding procedures contained in this image struc-
ture. Since with an unchanged situation of action the regulating
image remains the same, correspondingly the total structure of the
signal of guiding information from which the selection of a given
variant is made is likewise preserved.
Thus, the generality of reactions here is the constancy of
the image of the objectival situation with variation of the kine-
matic characteristics of individual motor solutions potentially
contained in the image structure.
The second form of generality of psychically controlled
motor behavior -- the generalization for stimuli -- is expressed
in the transfer of motor habits from a situation to a situation
where their objectival structure shares a commonness, that is,
here a singling out of common components of the image occurs.
Both of the examined forms of generality of psychic control
characterize the process of building motor effects (specifically
excutive or controlling) not as a selection and treatment of a
fixed order of motor acts, but as the formation of a senso-motor
structure, in which the sensory image-signal builds its motor
components.
4.
From the characterized features of psychic control
stems another of its main characteristics, redundancy. The
essence of the latter consists in that the regulating image-
signal determines the possibility of accomplishing not only that
variant of movement which has actually been selected, but the
ntire family of these variants, whose kinematic characteristic
orresponds to the geometry and topology of the objectival image.
n regard to the actually realized solution, the potential pos-
ibility of all its other variants deriving from the general
sructure of the image-signal is redundant ..
1
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If the realization of the selected variant from some external
or internal cause cannot be achieved, then the existence of methods
of solution redundant in relation to the given variant provides for
the possibility of its replacement. Here, such a replacement can
easily be achieved (under the regulating action of the general struc-
ture of the image) both before the selected variant of motion begins
to be realized, as well as in the midst of its accomplishment.
5. All these redundant possibilities of replacement and
.
change-over also determines such essential features of psychic con-
trol, as its interference-resistance and reliability. Interference-
resistance derives from the integrity of the image, and the relia-
bility of realization of a certain operation under changing condi-
tions (not allowable with systems operating from a code form of
information signals) here stems directly from the diversity of the
variants of motor solutions, determining the general objectival
structure of the image.
All the enumerated features of psychic control find their
ultimate and general expression in such basic characteristics as
relative universality and versatility, manifested to the same
extent both in specifically executive and controlling operations.
The analysis presented shows that all phenomenalogically
known characteristics of psychic control, in distinction to the
characteristics of regulation in automatic systems, actually stem
from differences in the methods under which those signals of infor-
mation which carry out the process of control are organized.
The method of ordering the image-signal elements in distinc-
tion to those of the code-signal, reproducing the objectival struc-
ture of the information source -- the object of action, determines
those features of interrelationship of guiding information with
command which elements are expressed in the above-listed basic
forms of psychic control.
·
The organizedness of elements of sensory signals in the
form of objectval images (in distinction to code-signals) revealed
by analysis of the regulating functions of various levels of sig-
nals confronts science with the task of further studying the
mechanism of reflexive dynamics of analyzers, realizing the forma-
tion of the sensory image as an image-signal.
Modern knowledge of the analyzer as a feedback system and
our understanding of the sensory image as the effect of reflexive
acts of this system enables us to examine the structure of the
image-signal as a process of the synthesis and ordering of the
set of elements forming the signal into an adequate source of
information of integral structure.
Particularly urgent problems in this investigation relate
to that link of the analyzer mechanism which provides for the
transition from a frequency-impulse nerve code to an image-signal,'
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that is, which accomplishes the operation of decoding. Discovery
of these mechanisms will enable us to advance to the next stage
of analysis -- discovery of the mechanisms by which guiding infor-
mation is transformed into command information, these mechanisms
lying at the basis of the concrete realization of the working func-
tion of a sensory image.
Thus, analysis of the real living function of the process of
reflection will lead to singling out its specific structure, and
discovery of the latter will again permit, although on a more pro-
found basis, investigation of the mechanisms of its working, con-
trolling functions. Here, the practical action of man at the
given phase of analysis emerges as the objective criterion and
the source for comprehending the very process of perception as
a process of reflection or representation in the proper and pre-
cise sense of this term.
10,123
CSO: 1872-S
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