BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

HABIT FORMATION 4)

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The progressive acquisition of fixed mental patterns and behaviors through imprinting, training or learning.

From the physiological viewpoint, recent research seems to indicate that habit formation and retention take place in "two fundamentally different learning and retention systems. These systems use different circuitry within the brain, store different aspects of experience and follow different rules of storage" (H.L. PETRI and M. MISHKIN, 1994, p.36). The brain seems to be a network of networks. This is important for the understanding of our normal as well as pathological mental processes.

Habit formation presents various aspects:

1) It is based on experimental recognition of repetitive situations or patterns.

2) it supposes the perception of at least a degree of coherent complexity (through appreciation of recognized Gestalten and their contexts).

3) it implies the progressive stabilization of specific and coordinated neural feedbacks in nets.

4) it becomes efficient by compression of redundant data into standardized perceptions, shaping of mental maps and of totalizing concepts.

5) it supposes the substitution of "… a deeper and more enduring change for a more superficial and reversible one" (1973, p.321).

In G. BATESON's words: "The phenomenon of habit formation sorts out the ideas which survive repeated use and puts them in a more or less separate category" (p.477).

This is also true for behavioral habits.

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

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