CONCEPTUAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL EVOLUTION IN THE ELECTRONIC CONTROL OF LEARNING

This paper reports on the basis of an analysis of the systems developed in our laboratory the conceptual and technological evolution of automatic control of learning behaviour in rats. Basically, there are two main conceptual frames in our approach: finite deterministic automaton and some over‐simplified high‐level programming strategies. Nevertheless, the physical implementation offers different levels according to the technological evolution of integrated electronics: S.S.I., M.S.I. and L.S.I.‐microprocessors. Part I presents a formalized methodology of learning experiments and a first system developed for operant and classical conditioning. Its implementation is based on the direct automata approach. Part II refers to the second approach: definition of a behavioural language for the description of the experiments, and the related design of a system for its interpretation in operational experimental terms, with multiprocessing on a program‐shared principle.