READINESS (Conditional)
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 2734 ▶ |
| Object type | General information |
This a conditional potential for behavior, more subtle than the behaviorist's conditioned behavior. D M. Mac KAY proposes this notion as follows: “Suppose… someone tells your ”it's raining“. You may be immersed in a book, and may not feel inclined even to grunt an aknowledgement. But this does not mean that your understanding of the message has had no effect on you. If a sudden call comes for you to go out of doors, you may now be ready to reach for umbrella or mac… What has been affected by your understanding of the message is not necessarily what you do — as some behaviourists have suggested — but reather what you would be ready to do if given (relevant) circumstances arose. It is quite possible that relevant circumstances may never arise, so that a naively behaviouristic approach would reveal no sign that you had understood the message. It is not your behaviour, but rather your state of conditional readiness for behaviour, which betokens the meaning (to your) of the message you heard” (1969, p.22).