Emergent Forms: Origins and Early Development of Human Action and Perception

While it is often assumed that behavioural development must be based upon both physical law and the biological principles of morphogenesis and selection, forging a link between these disciplines has remained an elusive goal. This book addresses the question of how familiar human functional acts - eating, walking, manipulating objects, smiling, etc. - emerge during infancy due to both intrinsic dynamics and selective processes. The central thesis of the book is that during perceptually guided spontaneous activity, a variety of biodynamic devices for doing different kinds of work are assembled and adapted to specific tasks. Following the introductory chapters, which explore principles from the fields of dynamics and ecological psychology, the author introduces a theory of the development of action systems based upon both self-organisation in complex systems and perceptually guided selective processes. The theory is then examined in the context of development of each of several action systems. The book addresses many long-standing issues in behavioural development, including the apparent disappearance of so-called primitive behaviours, the emergence of new skills, and the role of the caregiver on skill acquisition. The prospects for extending the theory to atypical development and to other domains such as cognition and language are also considered.

Table of Contents:
PART I: Ecological and Dynamical Foundations: The Ecological Approach of the Gibsons; Bernstein 1: Fundamental Issues and Perspectives in the Development of Action 1.1: Fundamental Issues: The Motor-Action Controversy 1.2: Developmental Perspectives on the Nature of Action 2: From Bernstein and von Holst to Dynamical Systems 2.1: A Prelude to Round 2 2.2: Round 2: Modeling Behavior on Dynamical Systems 3: Ecological Foundations 3.1: Gibson: Ambient Array, Patterned Flow, and Perceptual System 3.2: Action Systems 3.3: Habitats for Action Systems 3.4: Dynamics and Information 4: The Components of Action Systems: Subsystems and Their Interaction 4.1: Identifying the Subsystems 4.2: The Properties of the Subsystems 4.3: The Nervous Subsystem 4.4: Exploring the Relation Between the Subsystems PART II: Self-Organization and Selection as the Basis for the Assembly of Action Systems 5: Spontaneous Pattern Formation 5.1: Bernstein Redux 5.2: The Emergence of Patterns and Clocks 5.3: Implications of Scale: The Work of D'Arcy Thompson 5.4: Two Models of Morphogenesis 5.5: Implications of These Two Models 6: Selection and the Emergence of Specialized Functions 6.1: Darwinian Theory 6.2: Evolution and Ontogeny 6.3: Energy Sharing as the Basis of Cooperativity 6.4: The Environment and Selection 6.5: Evolution of Modes 6.6: Special Purpose Devices in Evolutionary and Ontogenetic Context 6.7: Assembling and Decomposing Transient Boundaries 6.8: Conclusions: Lessons from Evolution for Understanding the Ontogeny of Acting and Perceiving 7: The Ontogeny of Action Systems: A Theory 7.1: Outline of a Theory 7.2: Proposition 1: Coordinative Structures With Attractor Dynamics Emerge from Spontaneous Activity 7.3: Proposition 2: The body and Environment as Structured Surrounds 7.4: Proposition 3: Regulation of Assembly at Multiple Time Scales 7.5: Proposition 4: Exploratory Activity Reveals Stable Regions in Dynamic Geometries 7.5: Proposition 5: Action Systems are Assembled from a Mosaic of Available Components PART III: The Action Systems 8: Basic Orienting 8.1: Introduction 8.2: Orienting as a Foundation 8.3: Contrasting Perspectives of Orienting 8.4: The Ontogeny of Basic Orienting: The Fetal Period 8.5: The Transition from Fetal to Postnatal Life 8.6: From Flexion and Extension Against Gravity to Controlled Action 8.7: The Transition to Standing 9: Appetition 9.1: Issues 9.2: The Oral Articulators 9.3: Early Eating 9.4: The Transition from Neonatal Oral Activity to Chewing 9.5: The Transition to Independent Eating 9.6: Independent Eating 10: Locomotion 10.1: Constraints on Locomotion 10.2: Temporal Patterning and Constraints 10.3: Constraints on Temporal Patterning 10.4: The Human Intrauterine Environment 10.5: Transition to Postnatal Environment 10.6: Transition to Independent Mobility: Crawling 10.7: Exploring the Dynamics of the body as a Consequence of the Changing Postural Matrix 10.8: From Standing to First Steps 10.9: The Affordances of Locomotion 11: The Performatory Action System: Manual Activity 11.1: Classifying the Functions of the Hand 11.2: The Cooperation of Subsystems in Manual Activity 11.3: Constraints on Manual Activity 11.4: The Relation between Reaching and Grasping 11.5: From Pre-reaching to Visually-guided Reaching 11.6: A Dynamical Approach to Reach and Grasp 11.7: Object Exploration, Age, and Affordances 11.8: The Serial Order Problem 12: The Expressive Action System 12.1: Introduction 12.2: Physiological Arousal and Critical Regions 12.3: Transition from Endogenous to Social Smiles 12.4: Crying 12.5: From Early Behavioral States to Differentiated Emotions 12.6: Perception-Action Coupling in the Expressive Action System 12.7: Social Regulation 12.8: The Functional Significance of Fear 13: Directions 13.1: Conclusions and Directions 13.2: New Questions 13.3: Clinical Directions 13.4: Assessment 13.5: A Taxonomy of Disorders of Action Systems: Beyond Symptoms

Review :
"The concept [action systems] is an appealing one and has attracted considerable attention as a descriptive device.. However, Goldfield's book is the first systematic attempt to use it as an analytic and explanatory tool. . . . it is a most refreshing and attractive view and is evidencing considerable promise."--Contemporary Psychology "Emergent Forms proposes a new and unique perspective on the intruguing problem of the phylogenetic and ontogenetic origin and development of action systems." --Quarterly Review of Biology "The concept [action systems] is an appealing one and has attracted considerable attention as a descriptive device.. However, Goldfield's book is the first systematic attempt to use it as an analytic and explanatory tool. . . . it is a most refreshing and attractive view and is evidencing considerable promise."--Contemporary Psychology "Emergent Forms proposes a new and unique perspective on the intruguing problem of the phylogenetic and ontogenetic origin and development of action systems." --Quarterly Review of Biology