The Dynamic Pattern Approach to Coordinated Behavior: A Tutorial Review

We elaborate, in tutorial fashion, a theoretical framework that originated from observations of phase transitions in human movement coordination. Based upon theories of self-organization and pattern formation in dissipative dynamical systems (in particular, Haken's [1983] synergetics), this theoretical but operational language is aimed at understanding the behavioral patterns produced by biological systems. The key concepts are the identification of collective variables (or order parameters ) for behavioral patterns and the determination of their dynamics obtained through study of the stability (and loss of stability ) of behavioral patterns. Methods for calculating stability measures are defined and discussed (e.g., fluctuations, relaxation times, time scale relations). Such measures, when obtained in experiment, yield results that agree with theoretical predictions. Behavioral information is shown to contribute to the pattern dynamics, attracting the system toward the (e.g., environmentally specified, intended, learned) behavioral pattern. Such behavioral information is

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