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Schema Theory as a Common Language to Study Sensori-Motor Coordination

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Visuomotor Coordination

Abstract

Among sciences there is a tendency to generate data and knowledge in one discipline without making it available to other disciplines. We discuss how Arbib’s Schema Theory represents an attempt to solve this isolation problem in Cognitive Science by providing us with a global language explaining cognitive processes at a level that can be used, and understood, within all disciplines of cognitive sciences. In addition, we show how Schema Theory adds a key methodology to the “top-down” approach which allows us to set the stage within the theory-experiment cycle in order to investigate the neural substrate of sensori-motor coordination. We use our analyses of visuomotor coordinations in toads and praying mantises as examples (i) to show the applicability of Schema Theory in the study of what processes should occur within an animal’s brain in order to explain overall behaviors, and (ii) to point out how Schema Theory permits, in a very general way, to work top-down. The ultimate aim is to generate testable hypotheses about the neural mechanisms that underlie behavior.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Neurosciencias Instituto de Fisiologia Celular, Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México, 04510, México, D.F., México

    Francisco Cervantes-Perez

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  1. Francisco Cervantes-Perez
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Kassel, Kassel, Federal Republic of Germany

    Jörg-Peter Ewert

  2. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Michael A. Arbib

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© 1989 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Cervantes-Perez, F. (1989). Schema Theory as a Common Language to Study Sensori-Motor Coordination. In: Ewert, JP., Arbib, M.A. (eds) Visuomotor Coordination. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0897-1_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0897-1_14

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-0899-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-0897-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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