He uses his own experiments with Chickens as evidence of these behavioral trends; he modified his procedure in order to test for strength of certain drives over others and show any underlying drives. One of the ways he did this was by testing for the effects of stimulation at different depths and with varying strengths, this revealed that simple, individual actions can be produced by stimulation, but that complex actions that require the use of hierarchical systems are not generated by stimulation. However, individual acts within these complex behaviors can take place during/after stimulation. Lastly, he also uses the experiments with the chicken that already has the urge to sit down and is later stimulated to generate the drive to stand up to demonstrate the strength of other drives that are already operating. These experiments produce his theory that the intermediate curve helps determine whether or not a certain voltage is enough to cause standing or weak enough to allow for sitting.

3. How does control theory shed light on attachment behavior?

In Bowlby’s: A Control Systems Approach to Attachment Behavior, the significance of attachment behavior and its function were widely discussed. One of Bowlby’s main points surrounds the fact that proximity to a specific goal-object would serve as the reference signal. This conclusion was reached after a series of observations of mother-child interactions in a park. It was observed that in usual mother-child interactions of children between 1-3years old, they do not allow for more than 200 feet between them without trying to correct that, or depending on the child’s age, displaying some sort of signaling behavior. Using a control systems approach, the mother’s behavior of constantly checking on a child is simply part of a negative feedback loop in which she is trying to correct the error signal caused by too much distance between her and her child or too much time without making sure he is okay.