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.

One of the main examples on how control systems helps shed light on attachment is when a baby starts crying, which according to Bowlby serves as a signaling behavior. As a baby, the child does not have enough control to seek the mother or on his own fix the error signal, if she is too far away or not in sight, so instead of approaching the mother, the child’s cries serves as the output in his control system because its goal-directed effect is that the mother will go towards the child, essentially reducing the error signal. In these situations, a child usually does not stop crying until he is in contact with his mother, and likewise if the error signal is the other way around, and the mother is the one that needs the child, her attachment behavior will not terminate, or be inhibited, until she is in contact or displays some sort of signaling behavior with her child. Applying control systems to attachment behavior helps us comprehend the purpose of a child’s, sometimes incessant, crying, or of a mother’s, sometimes coddling, hovering.

However, I do wonder how we can be sure that this control system is based solely on proximity, because certainly this system is not as simple as the temperature control system. This attachment control system depends on the mother’s hormones, mother/child’s emotions and on context