ONT Re: Sequential Interactions Generating Hypotheses
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SIGH. Note 13
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Family Interaction Datasets as Two-Level Formal Languages (cont.)
I have mentioned that each way of looking at a dataset
amounts to an enabling hypothesis to the effect that
something interesting or useful might be seen by
looking at the data in just that way.
In parsing the family interaction datasets as 2-level formal languages,
I made the pure hypothesis that the resting episodes were somehow more
significant than others, in the sense that I interpreted them to mark
the "commas", the "periods", or the "ends of strands" at the second
level of the formal texts. One might speculate along the lines of
classical learning theory, as in Thorndike's "law of effect", that
these pauses are refreshing, rewarding, and thus reinforcing, or
else along the lines of Berlyne's information hungry animal that
at the very least they reward the players with information about
the structure of the interpersonal game in progress between them.
But if one gets to thinking in this deliberate, goal-oriented,
intentional, motivated, or purposive fashion, then one might
just as well single out many other subsets of episodic codes
as being the potential goals of either one or both of the
players in the game. Similar considerations would apply
to the choice of negative reinforcers, "deinforcements",
or "disincentives", classes of episodes that either or
both of the players are seeking to avoid or minimize.
Jon Awbrey
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