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Cited by 245

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 1 of the 1 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

The behavioural final common path

McFarland, D. J., Sibly, R. M.·1975·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences
DOI 10.1098/rstb.1975.0009
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Abstract

In this paper it is argued that any model of the motivational (i.e. reversible) pro­ cesses governing the behaviour of an animal can be represented by means of isoclines in a multidimensional ‘causal-factor space’. The argument is axiomatic, based upon the two prime assumptions: that (1) it is always possible to classify the behavioural repertoire of a species in such a way that the classes are mutually exclusive in the sense that the members of different classes cannot occur simultaneously, and (2) these incompatible actions are uniquely determined by a particular set of causal factors. The isoclines join all points in the space which present a given ‘degree of competitive­ ness’ of a particular ‘candidate’ for overt behavioural expression. The competition between candidates is an inevitable consequence of the fact that animals cannot ‘do more than one thing at a time’, and is envisaged as taking place in the behavioural final common path. An empirical method of determining the motivational state (i.e. point in causal- factor space) is outlined. This is a ‘relative’ method, independent of the arbitrary calibration of the axes of the causal-factor space. It is shown that an arbitrary scale of measurement along any two axes of the causal-factor space is all that is necessary for empirical determination of the shape of a motivational isocline. Experiments in which this method has been applied to the measurement of hunger and thirst in doves are outlined, and the results are discussed in terms of their implications for motivation theory in general.

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Research works printed but not linked: 36

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Metadata

Authors
McFarland, D. J., & Sibly, R. M.
Venue
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences
Publisher
The Royal Society
Published
1975-05-15
Volume
270
Issue
907
Pages
265-293
ISSN
  • 0080-4622 (ISSN-L)
  • 2054-0280
DOI
10.1098/rstb.1975.0009
OpenAlex
W2104072208
Cited by
245
References
1
FWCI
2.42
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ (tdm)

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: The behavioural final common path. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1098/rstb.1975.0009
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McFarland, D. J., & Sibly, R. M. (1975). The behavioural final common path. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1975.0009

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