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

REINFORCEMENT 1)

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The strengthening of some characteristic in a system by repetition of a stimulus-response effect.

Reinforcement cannot occur against unfavorable selection pressure. It generally starts as a random effect, which leads to a more satisfactory situation and thus becomes favored if repeated.

Reinforcement can be automatic, as for example in natural selection resulting in the multiplication of some genes in a population after a mutation, favorable in specific conditions. It has also been considered as a basic condition of animal or human learning by behaviorists. Devoid of its purely mechanistic taint, it is not rejected by so-called cognitivists, provided it be conjugated with recognition memory. (H.L. PETRI and M. MISHKIN, 1994, p.30-37).

In learning, according to these authors: "The role of reinforcement… is not to change the probability of a given response, but to lead to the development of expectancies about how certain goals can be reached" (Ibid., p.30). Reinforcement can possibly be used as a tool by purpose seeking systems.

The concept also can be extended to recognition processes in automata and, possibly to global behavior in automata networks.

→ Hebb's rule

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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