Reorganization of perception: a Konorskian interpretation of the Innsbruck experiments

This paper discusses the close fit of Konorski’s model to the data of Kohler’s Innsbruck experiments and also to more recent neurophysiological studies of environmental surgery or sensory disturbances. The dramatic Innsbruck research using special goggles or prismatic glasses that reversed or distorted the visual field confirmed and extended Stratton's earlier use of the substitution method. The subjects had at first insuperable difficulties in their locomotor behavior if it was guided by vision. After practice guided by certain rules, they were able to perform and eventually to "see" correctly in the strange environment. These studies demonstrate the plasticity of the nervous system, even in the adult. The problem for the field is to determine how these new associations, antagonistic to long established conditioned reflexes (CRs), become functional. The particular questions arise: what rules impede, what rules facilitate the transformation of CRs, and what physiological mechanism is responsible for the changed relations between the organism and the external world? Konorski’s remarkable theory is that no transformations of connections occurs in the reversal training. Instead, what actually happens is the formation of a connection between the original instrumental CR and non-reinforcement, and actualization of excitatory connections between the CS units and the kinesthetic units of the antagonistic movement. If correct, this motor act marks the termination of the eliciting drive and is reinforced. The original CR is readily re-established by restitution of its reinforcement.