The work "Plans and the Structure of Behavior" (1960) by George A. Miller, Eugene Galanter, and Karl H. Pribram was groundbreaking in its proposal to offer an alternative to Behaviorist paradigms by introducing cybernetic principles into the study of psychology. The book pivots around the concept of the TOTE unit, standing for Test-Operate-Test-Exit, a feedback control system that models how plans are executed, monitored, and adjusted. This approach opened a new dimension beyond classical Behaviorism, which largely eschewed internal mental states and focused solely on stimulus-response associations.
Traditional Behaviorist paradigms, deeply influenced by the work of B.F. Skinner, held that observable behavior was the sole subject matter for psychological study. They posited that behavior could be understood as the result of conditioned responses to stimuli, excluding any talk of internal mental states as unscientific "black boxes" that were irrelevant or even detrimental to empirical research.
In contrast, Miller, Galanter, and Pribram's work introduced a level of hierarchical organization and internal control mechanisms that was inherently cybernetic. They moved away from the simplistic stimulus-response model to a more nuanced understanding that incorporated planning, decision-making, and internal feedback loops. By doing so, they made room for the consideration of internal mental states—like plans, goals, and intentions—as integral to understanding behavior.
The book made the compelling case that behavior is not just a chain of reactions to external stimuli, but a dynamic process driven by internal plans that are continuously updated in response to feedback. This model lays the groundwork for a more complex systems-oriented approach to psychology, consistent with cybernetic principles of regulation and control. This was radical during its time because it blurred the line between the ‘soft’ human sciences and the ‘hard’ exact sciences, bringing in computational and engineering perspectives into psychological theory.
Their approach was not just theoretical but also had a broader implication for methodology in psychological research. Behavioral analysis, hitherto relying on external observation, now had to contend with the challenge of quantifying internal states. This was a precursor to the cognitive revolution, opening doors for cognitive psychology, computational neuroscience, and even artificial intelligence to explore these "black boxes" that Behaviorism ignored.
For further exploration, you might want to read:
1. "The Sciences of the Artificial" by Herbert A. Simon for a view on how systems theory can be integrated into social sciences.
2. "Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living" by Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela for an exploration into self-organized systems, a concept resonant with the cybernetic principles.
3. “Behavioral Systems Interpreted as Autonomous Agents and as Coupled Dynamic Systems: A Critique” by John A. Bargh and Peter M. Gollwitzer, which attempts to integrate the systems view into the behavioral science.
4. Recent articles on predictive coding and Bayesian brain hypothesis, as they integrate cybernetic control systems into neuroscientific models.
In sum, "Plans and the Structure of Behavior" shifted the paradigm from a linear, reactive model of psychology to a circular, proactive one, effectively bridging behavior analysis and cybernetics, two domains that were previously seen as disparate.
