Shanker Stuart G, King Barbara J
Departments of Philosophy and Psychology, York University, North York, Ontario, Canada M4S 1B4.
Behav Brain Sci. 2002 Oct;25(5):605-20; discussion 620-56.
In recent years we have seen a dramatic shift, in several different areas of communication studies, from an information-theoretic to a dynamic systems paradigm. In an information processing system, communication, whether between cells, mammals, apes, or humans, is said to occur when one organism encodes information into a signal that is transmitted to another organism that decodes the signal. In a dynamic system, all of the elements are continuously interacting with and changing in respect to one another, and an aggregate pattern emerges from this mutual co-action. Whereas the information-processing paradigm looks at communication as a linear, binary sequence of events, the dynamic systems paradigm looks at the relation between behaviors and how the whole configuration changes over time. One of the most dramatic examples of the significance of shifting from an information processing to a dynamic systems paradigm can be found in the debate over the interpretation of recent advances in ape language research (ALR). To some extent, many of the early ALR studies reinforced the stereotype that animal communication is functional and stimulus bound, precisely because they were based on an information-processing paradigm that promoted a static model of communicative development. But Savage-Rumbaugh's recent results with bonobos has introduced an entirely new dimension into this debate. Shifting the terms of the discussion from an information-processing to a dynamic systems paradigm not only highlights the striking differences between Savage-Rumbaugh's research and earlier ALR studies, but further, it sheds illuminating light on the factors that underpin the development of communication skills in great apes and humans, and the relationship between communicative development and the development of language.
近年来，我们看到在传播学研究的几个不同领域发生了巨大转变，从信息论范式转向了动态系统范式。在信息处理系统中，无论是细胞之间、哺乳动物之间、猿类之间还是人类之间的交流，据说当一个生物体将信息编码为信号并传输给另一个对该信号进行解码的生物体时，交流就发生了。在动态系统中，所有元素都在持续相互作用并相互变化，从这种相互作用中会出现一种总体模式。信息处理范式将交流视为一系列线性、二元的事件，而动态系统范式则关注行为之间的关系以及整个配置如何随时间变化。从信息处理范式转向动态系统范式的重要性的最显著例子之一，可以在关于猿类语言研究（ALR）近期进展的解释的辩论中找到。在某种程度上，许多早期的ALR研究强化了动物交流是功能性的且受刺激限制的刻板印象，恰恰是因为它们基于促进交流发展静态模型的信息处理范式。但是萨维奇 - 伦堡最近对倭黑猩猩的研究结果为这场辩论引入了全新的维度。将讨论的术语从信息处理范式转向动态系统范式，不仅凸显了萨维奇 - 伦堡的研究与早期ALR研究之间的显著差异，而且进一步揭示了支撑大猩猩和人类交流技能发展的因素，以及交流发展与语言发展之间的关系。
