CLARK HULL

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A (Proto) Cybernetic Explanation To assist the conceptualisation of a learning machine Craik draws on the American behaviourist Clark Hull’s “conditioned reflex models”. Clark Hull had compiled a series of “idea books” (1929-52) in which he devised mechanical and electro-chemical automata which worked on the Pavlovian principle of trial and error conditioning (Pavlov’s Conditioned Reflexes was published in English translation in 1927). Hull also derived his own mathematical system to describe the operations of these automata and wanted to apply the rules of the conditioned reflex as computational units within his machines. Hull aimed to build a conditioned reflex machine that would demonstrate intelligence through contact with its environment. The devises were subjected to a “combination of excitory and inhibitory procedures and would exhibit an array of known conditioning phenomena”. Meaning, the machines would “learn” to overcome obstacles in order to achieve a particular goal. Hull methodically analysed how instances of purpose and insight could be derived from the simple interaction of elementarily conditioned habits. “I feel” stated Hull, “that all forms of action, including the highest forms of intelligent and reflective action and thought, can be handled from purely materialistic and mechanistic standpoints.”