a form of behavior is adaptive if it maintains the essential variables within physiological limits. For example, the amount of carbon dioxide in the blood is important in its effect on the blood's alkalinity. If the amount rises, the rate and depth of respiration are increased, and carbon dioxide is exhaled at an increased rate. If the amount falls, the reaction is reversed. By this means the alkalinity of the blood is kept within limits. The retina works best at a certain intensity of illumination. In bright light the nervous system contracts the pupil, and in dim relaxes it. Thus the amount of light entering the eye is maintained within limits. When dry food is chewed, a copious supply of saliva is poured into the mouth. Saliva lubricates the food and converts it from a harsh and abrasive texture to one which can be chewed without injury. The secretion therefore keeps the frictional stresses below the destructive level. Many more examples could be given, but all can be included within the same formula. Some external disturbance tends to drive an essential variable outside its normal limits; but the commencing change itself activates a mechanism that opposes the external disturbance. By this mechanism the essential variable is maintained within limits much narrower than would occur if the external disturbance were unopposed. The narrowing is the objective manifestation of the mechanism's adaptation. Just the same criterion for adaptation may be used in judging the behavior of the free-living animal in its learned reactions. Take the type-problem of the kitten and the fire. When the kitten first approaches an open fire, it may paw at the fire as if at a mouse, or it may crouch down and start to 'stalk' the fire, or it may attempt to sniff at the fire, or it may walk unconcernedly on to it. Every one of these actions is liable to lead to the animal's being burned. Equally the kitten, if it is cold, may sit far from the fire and thus stay cold. The kitten's behavior cannot be called adapted, for the temperature of its skin is not kept within normal limits. The animal, in other words, is not acting
homeostatically for skin temperature. Contrast this behavior with that of the experienced cat: on a cold day it approaches the fire to a distance adjusted so that the skin temperature is neither too hot nor too cold. If the fire burns fiercer, the cat will move away until the skin is again warmed to a moderate degree. If the fire burns low the cat will move nearer. If a red-hot coal drops from the fire the cat takes such action as will keep the skin temperature within normal limits. Without making any inquiry at this stage into what has happened to the kitten's brain, we can at least say that whereas at first the kitten's behavior was not homeostatic for skin temperature, it has now become so. Such behavior is 'adapted': it preserves the life of the animal by keeping the essential variables within limits. (Ashby, 1960, pp. 58, 60-62)
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