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Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=pijp20 Download by: [University of California, San Diego] Date: 19 February 2016, At: 10:57 International Journal of Psychology ISSN: 0020-7594 (Print) 1464-066X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/pijp20 On Voluntary Action and its Hierarchical Structure Jerome S. Bruner & Blanche M. Bruner To cite this article: Jerome S. Bruner & Blanche M. Bruner (1968) On Voluntary Action and its Hierarchical Structure, International Journal of Psychology, 3:4, 239-255, DOI: 10.1080/00207596808246648 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207596808246648 Published online: 24 Sep 2007. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 20 View related articles Citing articles: 49 View citing articles lnfernational Journal o f Prychology Journal International de Prychologie 1968, Vol. 3, NO 4, 239-255 ON VOLUNTARY ACTION AND ITS HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE JEROME S. BRUNER BLANCHE M. BRUNER Harvard Universit_y, USA Les AA., cherchant B dtcouvrir quels sont les caracttres de l’organisation de quelques systtmes biologiques au cours de la premitre enfance, montrent comment un comportement primitivement automatique et riflexe se transforme graduel- Iement en contr6le volontaire. Sur la base d’expiriences qui ont porti sur la manikre dont deux activitis conflictuelles, titer et regarder, s’intkgrent chez le bib6 de z B 3 mois, on peut distinguer des itapes dans le processus d’organisa- tion : (a) d‘abord, suppression de l’une ou de l’autre activiti; (b) ensuite, alternance des deux sans interftrence; (c), enfin maintien en place des deux B la fois : la structure des deux activitis est intigrie dans un acte qui les comprend l’une et l’autre, les parties y itant cependant exicuties sipariment. Dans une autre expi- rience, on observe que les bibts s’efforcent devoir nettement, but qui est fix6 arbi- trairement, en coordonnant susage et regard, h l’aide d’une stratigie de riponses qui est hiirarchiquement organisie et adaptative. Certains episodes du diveloppe- ment de la manipulation des objets avec guidage visuel, montrent comment un programme d’action peut &re mis en place dts le dtbut. La maitrise de l’action implique un cycle de restriction brutale des formes du mouvement et de forma- tion programmte de l’habileti dans les limites de cette restriction. On peut dire, en conclusion, qu’il y a une organisation adaptative, ginirique et intelligente du comportement B chaque Lge. Elk est atteinte de fason inigale et imparfaite, par intermittence et incompletement : une nouvelle analyse fonctionnelle est ntcessaire. It is quite apparent that many biological systems operate from the outset as hierarchically organized wholes by their very nature. But it is also true that some systems achieve such structure slowly and haltingly. In early human growth, the initially well-organized systems seem to be predominantly of the automatic or “ overcontrolled ” type, as with breathing, swallowing, and initial sucking. With a minimum of initial priming, all three of these are potentiated easily and “ go off” in appropriate ways to appropriate stimulation. Moreover, from the start they appear to be embedded smoothly into a larger context of action. A newborn can suck, swallow, and breathe not contemporaneously, but in a fashion that is so beautifully intercalated as to leave little doubt of the role of a pre- established central nervous system in the production of this synergy. Indeed, Paper presented at the Symposium on New Perspectives in the Sciences of Man, Alpbach, Austria, June, 1968. This research was supported by grants No. POI-MH-12623 from the National Institute of Mental Health, No. ROI HD-03049 from the National Institute of Child Health and Development, and No. GS-1173 from the National Science Foundation, to Harvard University, Center for Cognitive Studies. Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 10:57 19 February 2016 240 JEROME S. BRUNER AND BLANCHE M. BRUNER it can properly be argued without unseemly teleology that crucial biological systems requiring little plasticity generally have such pre-established organization, selected precisely to assure regulation of functions crucial for gross survival within fairly narrow limits of environmental variability. They are, in the main, systems involving relatively little information processing and in their most specialized version are regulated by the autonomic nervous system. Such systems characteristically show little awkwardness during growth. Obviously, certain general principles of action do not vary from one type of system to the other. Even at the lowest level, it is necessary to distinguish between exafference and reafference. Von Holst (1950) put the matter well : " If I shake the branch of a tree, various receptors of my skin and joints produce a reafference, but if I place my hand on a branch shaken by the wind, the stimuli of the same receptors produce an exafference. We can see that this distinction has nothing to do with the difference between the so-called proprio- and extero- receptors. The same receptor can serve both the reafference and exafference. The central nervous system must, however, possess the ability to distinguish one from the other .... Stimuli resulting from its own movements must not be interpreted as movements of the environment. " And, of course, it is to the credit of von Holst and Mittelstadt ( 1 9 5 0 ) , of Sperry (1950), and others to have demonstrated that even the primitive nervous system of the fish can in fact distinguish the stimulation produced on a receptor by the self-induced action and by environmentally induced change. But plainly, there are some systems of action in which the reafference system, its capacity for control by corollary discharge to related systems and therefore its " skill " is virtually zero at the outset. The visually-guided use of the hands in human beings is somewhat like this, and it is particularly interesting to examine its growth because it reaches such delicate virtuosity after so awkward a start. It appears to be based on the development of programs of action that are plainly quite different from those, for example, that characterize such a system as eye movements which, virtually from the start, are smooth and controlled by reafference principles and corollary discharge. Obviously the central nervous system can distinguish from the start the movement of objects across the stationary retinal field from the movement of objects across this field produced by the eye itself moving, the former producing an optokinetic pursuit, the latter not. The hand, on the contrary, cannot be so distinguished and an infant is capable of startling himself by a quick swipe of the hand into the central visual field. The corollary discharge from the effector is plainly not getting a wide distribution in the case of the hand movement, but is in the case of the eye movement. We know extraordinarily little about systems that acquire their organization in contrast to those that have much of it built in from the start. We believe that it is of great importance to examine the former type of system with especial care, for it is in such systems that one finds maximum plasticity, a maximum modelling of the most variable features of the environment, and a maximum amount of information processing. These are the systems of action that, we believe, become generutive in the linguistic sense, i.e, capable of being employed in a variety of contexts by the use of a minimum set of elementary operations combined and recombined by rule-governed programs. We believe that it is the open quality of these systems that allows for their incorporation of prosthetic devices and Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 10:57 19 February 2016 ON VOLUNTARY ACTION AND ITS HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE 241 tools on the one side, and of language as a medium for programming action on the other. In the following pages, wc shall explore some of the features of organization of a couple of highly plastic, voluntary systems of action that we have been studying with a view to examining something about their growth and structure. Our plan is simple. We shall begin with some behavior that initially seems to be quite automatic and reflexive and is gradually converted to voluntary control. We have chosen the phenomenon of nutritive and comfort-giving sucking as the vehicle for this discussion. The exercise will, perhaps, give us an idea of what happens in the transition from a low to a high information processing system. Then we shall sample some episodes in the growth of visually-guided manipulation of objects better to appreciate how a program of skilled action may be put together from the outset. Our progress will be from mouth to hand rather than from hand to mouth. PROM REFLEXIVE SUCKING TO VOLUNTARY SUCKING Consider now the growth and integration of human nutritional activity during the early months of human life. First let us briefly review the facts of sucking and the role of the mouth in early infancy. Functions o f sucking Sucking serves several functions. It can be observed as early as the third gestational month (Peiper, 1963). Though it is instinctive, it requires some priming to get started in the neonate, as we know from the work of Gunther (1961), and if not early exercised, may become difficult to evoke. uploads/Finance/ bruner-1968.pdf