W. Timberlake, AN ANIMAL-CENTERED, CAUSAL-SYSTEM APPROACH TO THE UNDERSTANDING AND CONTROL OF BEHAVIOR, Applied animal behaviour science, 53(1-2), 1997, pp. 107-129
In a world of increasing demands and diminishing resources, the unders
tanding and control of behavior is likely to be a key to successful re
lations between human and nonhuman animals. The traditional laboratory
study of animal behavior, centered on systematic manipulation of sing
le variables, has provided powerful causal laws connecting manipulatio
ns to effects, but these laws have proved surprisingly difficult to tr
ansport to field and applied settings. The recent increase in anthropo
morphic interpretations of behavior has the advantage of emphasizing t
he contribution of the animal rather than the experimenter, but by its
elf anthropomorphism holds little possibility of improved understandin
g and prediction. I argue for development of a causal-system approach
that captures an animal's point-of-view without unnecessary assumption
s of a human-like mental life. By realizing this approach within the s
tructural framework and regulatory processes of behavior systems, it s
hould be possible to develop a model of animal behavior that integrate
s and expands data from laboratory, field, and applied settings, and m
ay contribute to successful relations between human and nonhuman anima
ls. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.