Note from person posting this:

The following paper came from my mother when she was on a psychology course in the early eighties, and has sat around in my files ever since. In September 1998 I had some time and so decided to scan it in and check it out. I sent the following e-mail to Loyola University Medical Centre

I was handed a copy of a paper entitled 'A study of the activity, ethology and psychology of fluorescent plastic cubes' by C L Scudder (1976) at 'Institute for the study of mind, drugs and behaviour, Loyola University Medical Centre, 2160 S First Avenue, Maywood, Ill 60153. I was trying to find out if this is the real accreditation for this paper, or if this is as much spoof as the article itself

to which I got the following reply:

I'm unable to locate a CL Scudder here at the medical centre currently, and we don't have an institute by that name. It would be difficult for us to determine the authenticity of something from 1976 without more information. Sorry we couldn't be of more help.

Jacqueline LaSota
Director, Public Relations and WWW Marketing Department
Loyola University Health System

I can not therefore vouch for it's origin or authenticity, and in the scanning process the spell checker has also changed the words from US English to UK English, otherwise it is a faithful reproduction of the document I was handed. If the real author wishes to stand up I will of course give full accreditation to them

David M Walker
September 1998

A STUDY ON THE ACTIVITY, ETHOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF FLUORESCENT PLASTIC CUBES*
Author: C.L. SCULDER
Institute for the Study of Mind, Drugs and Behaviour
Loyola University Medical Centre
2160 S. First Avenue
Maywood, Ill. 60253

ABSTRACT

A series of experiments are presented which have provided rigorously quantified and carefully analyzed data on the behaviour of small, fluorescent, plastic cubes of varying size and weight in an environment of organic complexity. These variables have been studied as to their effects on the psychomotor activity of the cubes, on the social behaviour of the basic units, and on the evolution, the affinities, drives and Intelligence of the cubes.

A new point of view regarding the behaviour of richly connected systems is expressed. The data suggest that there are errors caused by the dogmatic separation of scientific disciplines and strongly favours a metagoal of trans-cultural, trans-world unity of science.

INTRODUCTION

The series of experiments reported here represent more than eight years of research. However, none of the data have been published previously. The work has been carried cut with difficulty in that the necessary funds were from personal contributions of the author and motivated graduate students. An initial tentative grant request in regard to the project was not permitted to pass beyond the chairman's desk and caused such emotional, vindictive and threatening behaviour on the part of the establishment that much of this work has had to be carried out secretly. Only the virtues of the tenure system permitted the analysts and presentation of this data.

This laboratory has been engaged for many years in studies on mouse behaviour. (1)(2) A serious, no-nonsense consideration of the concepts on which our behavioural, theories were based promoted the investigation reported here. In our everyday conversations in the laboratory we had a natural enough tendency to let the concepts of our professed field (behaviour) soul over to our descriptions of the behaviour of "inanimate" things; and we found ourselves deep in information theory, systems theory, Gestalt theory, etc. when we tried to establish the validity of the assumptions underlying our initial points of view and to pin-point the rationale behind the classical constructs of animal psychology which we used to speak about the mice under investigation. (3) We came to view the organism as a behavioural system which mirrored aspects of the environmental reality; and we began to wonder which was the reflection of which, e.g., did the adaptive intelligent animal reflect the environ-ment or did the environment reflect the animal? Feedback apparently was involved in the simplest motor act. The mice acted upon things as a result of things acting upon them; and the stimulus was modified by the actions of the mouse-actions which it (the stimulus) caused. An on-going developmental situation existed for which there was neither a be-ginning nor an end but rather, in most cases, there was a dyadic relation-ship as follows:

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A is an event (or series of events) of a system external to the mouse and affecting it, and B is an event (or series of events) within the mouse affecting the other system so as to modify A.

The experiments reported here were conceived with only a slight change in reference or point of view. This change in reference seemed reasonable because it appeared to us that there was only a convention directing us; and, possibly, new insights would be gained if we ignored our conventional, egocentric, Judeo-Christian philosophy. The philosophy treats the world as divided into animate and inanimate objects and main-tains itself by rigorously indoctrinating us from infancy that this dichotomy has some validity. The validity is enforced by suitable separation of terminologies, concepts, and hypotheses in use in separate disciplines studying one or the other category.

We jokingly referred to our studies as the founding of a new science - "cubology," the study of the behaviour of cubes in a complex organic medium. After we began our research and discovered that this was indeed a new science, we began to worry about its implication. In what way were the conclusions which we reached more silly and irrelevant than those of scientific, behavioural, life sciences orthodoxy? The measure-ments are accurate and valid. The hypotheses are simple, clear, and not devious; but the overall implications are alarming in that the principles and the logic of cubology are those of economics, sociology, psychology, or any of the model-constructing sciences of the artificial.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

I Animals

The animals used in these experiments were wild-trapped, male, domestic mice, Mus musculus domesticus. After a two week quarantine period in the environmental chamber of the laboratory, the animals were admitted into the cube chamber described below. They were not further studied, The number of male animals was maintained at thirty individuals in the chamber throughout each experiment. Food and water were available ad libitum at the sides of the chamber in small containers.

II Cubes

The work reported here dealt with the behaviour of solid polyethylene plastic cubes. Control cubes for this study were 1.5 cm. on a side, all the same weight and solid. During certain studies either the dimensions or the weights of the cubes were changed. If the cube dimensions were the parameter under consideration, 2 sizes of cubes differing from the 1.5 cm on a side control cubes were constructed. These were either 1.2 or 1.8 cm on a side. The smaller cubes were weighed with lead inserts re-covered with plastic and were of the same weight as the control cubes. The larger ones were partially hollow so that their weights also equalled the control cubes. Thus in studies on the effect of size on behaviour, all cubes weighed the same. For those studies involving the effect of weight on behaviour, the control cubes of 1.5 cm. dimension were hollowed or weighed and then recovered to all look identical although they now weighs 2, 3 or 4 grams.

All cubes were impregnated with flourescene which was activated strongly by a dark light of 385 nillimicrons and emitted fluorescent light at 435 millimicrons. The latter radiation could be recorded by means of a camera as described below.

At the beginning of each experiment 34,560 cubes were admitted to the chamber described below and placed equidistant from one another on the floor.

III The Cube Chamber

This was a large chamber, 6.1 x 3.7 x 2.4 meters in size. It was constructed from pine 2" x 4" studs. The entire chamber on the inside had a lining of 1/4 inch wire netting forming the walls and a ceiling. The floor was a smooth aluminium sheet perforated with 0.5 cm holes spaced 1/4 cm apart. These holes allowed feces, food particles, and urine to fall from the chamber but did not permit escape of the cubes and provided a smooth solid base for their activities. The chamber was maintained in a dark room at 22oC. ± 1.3o with a light-dark cycle of 16 hours daylight. The on time was 6 a.m. When photographed for analysis, the entire chamber was lit briefly with strong ultraviolet radiation and all other illumination was extinguished briefly at that time. A modified wide angle Minolta camera mounted above the chamber was used for photography. One picture (frame) of the total field (floor of the chamber) was photographed at every five minute interval throughout the experiment. This series of frames provided us with a moment-to-moment record of the behaviour of the cubes in the presence of complex organic material. The mathematical analysis and quantitation of these data was made possible by means of a computer read-out of the film. Each cube appeared as a point of light and suitable programs allowed us to formulate the statistically-relevant generalities which are presented here.

IV Experimental paradigm.

The basic experiment has already been indicated above. The chamber was emptied and cleaned. The 34,560 cubes were admitted to the chamber and placed equidistant from one another on the floor. The mice were admitted to the chamber at 6.00 a.m. and the filming was begun at this time at the rate of 1 frame every 5 minutes. Each experiment lasted thirty days.

Experiments were run using control, light, heavy , large and small cubes. Some experiments were also run using an equally distributed population of the three differently weighed cubes or the three different sized cubes. Mixture of weighted and sized cubes were not studied. The experi-ments were essentially simple in concept, although very tedious to execute.

From the motion pictures of each experiment, measurements were taken; and three basic kinds of behaviour were studied: activity, ethology or social behaviour and psychology. The qualitative difference between these behaviour and the effects of changing the two parameters of weight and size on these three behaviour are reported in the results section below.

RESULTS

I. Psychomotor Activity.

A. Control Cubes.

These studies pertained to the overall amount of activity shown by the control cubes without consideration of the quality. The estimates were derived by superpositioning with the computer a fine grid over each frame of the serial sequence of film and analyzing the number of cubes crossing a line of the grid within each five minute unit of time. The procedure was similar to that used to record the psychomotor behaviour of animals. The general overall activity of the cubes analyzed in this way showed several interesting features. The activity, for example, showed diurnal rhythm, an orientation reflex (this is a period of heightened activity early in the experiment when the cubes are unfamiliar with the environment and becoming acquainted with each other), and a tendency to stabilize at a certain constant activity level. (Thermodynamic equilibrium?)

The average daily psychomotor activity taken from ten studies of control cubes is shown in Figure 1. There is a clear indication that the cubes become increasingly frenzied until around the fifth day at which time the overall daily activity settles down to what might be considered the energy level of the total population of controls. The activity of the first five days is the orienting reflex.

Figure 2 shows a more detailed hour by hour analysis of an average day's activity from such studies. Data from the first five days' activity or orientation period have been withheld from this analysis. The cubes show two distinct peaks of activity - one at 8.00 pm. and another at 4.00 a.m. Night time activities average considerably higher than those during the day when cubes appear to rest.

B. The effect of size on psychomotor activity.

Interestingly, smaller cubes were much more active than larger ones. Although less intelligent (see analysis below), they showed both a much higher level of orienting reflex and of general activity. On the other hand, larger cubes were more sluggish and never as highly active. (See Chart 1.)

C. The effect of weight on psychomotor activity.

Weight was found to be an important variable in that heavier cubes showed lessened psychomotor activity. Light cubes showed consi-derable orienting reflex and activity. (See Chart 2).

II Ethology

A. Control Cubes

The analysis of locomotor behaviour presented above made no distinction among types of behaviours. Psychomotor activity does not differentiate between a positive (social) and a negative (antisocial) response of one cube towards another. One of the most striking discoveries of these studies is the existence of self-organizing properties among the cubes. Initially at the beginning of each experiment the cubes are scattered equi-distant from and symmetrical with regard to one another. If the camera film is projected on a screen at several frames per second, a moving picture results which makes it clearly evident that the overall movement of the cubes is not random. Indeed, their effect on each other and on the organic constituents of the system is such that at unpredictable intervals the cubes aggregate at one point or another on the floor of the chamber.

The size of the aggregates varies, but the average aggregate of ten experiments was composed of 130 cubes (S.E. ± 27). Aggregates of the cubes wander as "tribes" one cube following the other, about the cage floor; and they may settle or disperse. The cubes did not often show "cueing" behaviour, the usual effect was that one cube would leave a tribe and settle somewhere. It would then communicate with others of its group and cause them to follow and settle nearby, sometimes a tribe was seen to divide into several aggregates or one may coalesce with another forming larger stable communities.

The cube aggregates present fascinating parallels to human colonies or civilizations. After the fifth day the tribes have stabilized to certain regions of the cage floor and the attractions among unit cubes of each tribe seem more enduring. We have observed, however, on rare occasions, sudden, unexplained activity on the part of the cubes to form new social relation-ships and new tribes after a period of inactivity by the members of the group. This begins when one member ventures out and this act promotes a rapid following by the rest of the herd, one at a time. It appears that there is some kind of seeding or catalytic effect in that if a little group gets together, it forms the nucleus for the organization or accumulation of other cubes to form a larger aggregate. There appears also to be a "law of exponential aggregation" in that once a small society is formed, there is an increasingly rapid rate of accretion until some optimum size is reached after which activity among the involved cubes ceases. Some cubes were observed to oscillate, to not settle down at one place or another. Such cubes showed frenzied activity and instability. It is interesting that these were the cubes which most often ceased their restless search only after they had achieved some unusual or improbable position in the cage and were therefore often the more intelligent.

B. The effect of cube size on the quality of behaviour.

Both weight and size affect the quality of behaviour. For example, among different-sized cubes, like attracts like; e.g., cubes of a similar size aggregate together. Small cubes tend to show more activity but move more randomly than control cubes; they show less stability and organization. Larger cubes often aggregate together without much random movement once a seed is formed. Their colonies are resistant to change.

C. The effect of weight on the quality of behaviour.

When populations of mixed weighted cubes were studied, their discrimination of one another was not found to be as great as that found among cubes of different size. There was a noted tendency for heavier cubes not to increase their negentropy, e.g., they were found to aggregate less and therefore contain less structure, less information in their groups. The control cubes and light-weighted cubes occasionally formed conglomerate societies.

III. Intelligence.

The above data and that which follows is admittedly difficult to quantitate. After the investigators had developed a familiarity with the behaviours, the entire sequences of film were reviewed and the number of times in each experiment a particular strategy was observed was recorded. The observations and generalities presented in this pilot study are based on these analysis. Intelligence was estimated on the basis of the frequency and degree of improbable and complex behaviour. As has been noted, the activity of the small and the light cubes was often very great - but it appeared random, almost like Brownian movement. However, other cubes as they moved about seemed to gather information, to attempt strangely unlikely acts for example; and (this was most noted among the control cubes) the cubes occasionally assumed three dimensional configurations. e.g., one cube mounted another and rested on it. Even piles of three cubes, a very improbably event, were observed. Most rarely, but on several occasions, arches were observed two or three layered levels; that is, two columns were bridged over at the top with a cube. During every experiment the emergence and temporal duration of these columns or improbable three-dimensional structures were recorded. Intelligence was estimated on the basis of the frequency and degree of improbable and complex behaviour. On such a scale, in terms of our evaluation, the variables have the following effect on intelligence:

Either increasing or decreasing the weights lessened the likelihood of intelligent behaviour. Increasing or decreasing the size lessened the likelihood of intelligent behaviour. In other words it would appear that in the case of either size or weight there had to be a critical amount of plastic present for the generation of mood and complex behavioural stratagems. There was a non-linear complexity involved here. In spite of our clear definition of intelligence in terms of the behaviour of the cubes (their readiness to form complex associations) the internal factors responsible for their behavioural traits in this matter have escaped us. Why should the removal of a small plug of material from the centre of the cube render it more stupid. Why should a different bodily dimension cause either sluggish, unimaginative or hyperactive, unstable behaviour?

DISCUSSION

It must be understood that this is a new field of exploration, and that the work presented here is a pilot study which should be developed in future work. There are exciting implications in the observation that in suitable environments, intelligence can be found in relatively undifferentiated matter and form, namely in the plastic cores of the cubes.

Some comment must be made in regard to the results presented here. Although the experiment is unconventional, the data are sound. The cubes behave under these conditions in the manner presented here. They show social aggregation, negentropy increase, diurinal rhythm, etc. These behaviours are made no less remarkable if it is noted that it would not be so to a different environment. This is true of all behaviours.

When we investigate some aspect of the universe, the way we sub-divide the system is arbitrary (4) and a matter of convention and convenience. Things are identified by their looseness of coupling with other things or by degrees of decomposition (5) Much of this depends on mechanistic assumptions of causation.

It is necessary in this discussion to digress for just a moment and consider an interesting phenomenon of mathematics. This is necessary because in science, once we establish our categories and our variables, the rest is mathematics. Let us consider the mathematical properties of the surface of a sphere. From measurements made on the surface a consistent set of relationships can be worked out, all describing the surface; these measurements even indicate a property called curvature while telling nothing of what is inside and outside or of a third dimension. The measurements or pointer readings provide a discipline and knowledge about intrinsic properties of the sphere's surface, properties present in the information gathered at the surf ace. In science we deal with a three dimensional world. Measurements of this physical space also indicate curvature as one of its intrinsic properties (6). We measure and draw our proofs from this intrinsic information because acme tell us that by definition space is everything and everywhere. The universe has no extrinsic properties, we can know of none, we can conceive no fourth dimension.

Yet obviously, contrary to the above doctrine we all know of something extrinsic to the mathematical systems of physical science. We know we are conscious (or something!) - our thoughts, our intelligence, our being we know. They are extrinsic to our present scientific paradigms. The words to express conscience and its qualities are inadequate because words suggest things - space occupying things with dimension and duration; and "they" are not of this substance. "They are extrinsic to physical reality and in that sense do not exist. But this suggests there may be a discrepancy in how we are handling our thinking about reality.

How is a dyadic or higher order feedback relationship to be studied or divided in regard to behaviour? Many of our sciences may be blind to this problem. Do the men cause the ghettos or do the ghettos produce the men? Does a family constellation cause the psychotic or does the psychotic promote the family constellation? Did society evolve the brain or does the brain create society? Who is the controller and by when controlled? Where is the stimulus If it can be traced back to the creature which is stimulated? What point of view, what hypothesis, what demon or ghost has the greatest validity in regard to a systems approach to behaviour?

We may be leaving out something in our world view and in our scientific dogma (7) We did not consider the mice in our cubology; they were extrinsic to the cubes part of the environment. In studying the behaviour of men and their affairs and artifacts we find a lot that resembles the cubes. Are we leaving something out? Is something important extrinsic to our data?

CONCLUSION

The experiments reported here represent a departure from more classical points of view. It is ingrained in the dogma o the behavioural sciences that in a feedback relationship (where event A affects B, and event B is affecting A) the important behaviour especially if it is intelli-gent, self-organizing, or goal-directed, is a property of the organic part. The control or mind or brain is presupposed to lie in the organic part. There appears no valid basis for this assumption (8). The mouse cube experiment shows that intelligence of a sort (mind, and the like) can be found as well in solid blocks of plastic in the proper environment. The idea at fault seems to be that mind or behaviour or control are attributed to parts of a system. The conclusion tentatively reached by this author is that the concepts of most at our behavioural sciences are rooted in a culturally determined point of view and advancement or intellectual change with some reward is possible only when these hardened dogmas of the life sciences are broken by other frames of reference, other consciously-perceived, accidentally discovered realities, transcultural and metalinguistic.

It is perhaps impossible for the straight-jacketed minds of pure scientists to consider the revolutionary import of this attitude; but those who, along with their being scientists are also philosophers, or, more importantly, sorcerers, understand the depths and dangers it portends to us and our society. (9)

FIGURES

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Figure 1: Mean daily psychomotor activity of a control cube population. The ordinate represents the percent mean activity index obtained by averaging the five minute activities of ten populations for each day of a typical control study and expressing this as a percent of the highest daily (24 hour) activity shown by any of the populations throughout the study. The abcissa is time in days.

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Figure 2: An average 24-hour activity record showing the diurnal effect. The ordinate in this case is the mean percent activity computed on an hourly basis for ten studies. The records for the first five days of these studies were not averaged because of the orientation reflex (Pig. 1). The abscissa represents time in hours.

Chart 1
THE EFFECT OF SIZE ON PSYCHOMOTOR ACTIVITY
Small 37.0 ± 0.8
Orienting Reflex Control 17.3 ± 0.2
Large 4.2 ± 0.7
Small 30.3 ± 0.3
Daily Activity Control 12.7 ± 0.1
Large 2.7 ± 1.2

This chart indicates the mean counts/hour value (± SEM) of the psychomotor activity during the first five days of the study (orientation reflex) and the mean daily activity (± SEM) for the remainder of the study. It can be seen that the smaller cubes are generally more active and reactive compared with the control and larger cubes. The differences bet en the behaviours of the treated cubes and the control cube behaviours here always significant P < 0.05 and in some cases were highly significant.

Chart 2
Small 23.9 ± 0.3
Orienting Reflex Control 16.4 ± 0.6
Large 14.2 ± 0.3
Small 20.3 ± 0.2
Daily Activity Control 12.3 ± 0.2
Large 9.9 ± 0.8

This chart indicates the mean, counts per hour value (± SEM) of the psychomotor activity during the first five days of the study (Orienting reflex) and the mean daily activity (± SEM for the remainder of the study. It can be seen that the lighter cubes are generally more active and reactive compared with the control and heavier cubes, The difference from control value all achieved P<0.05.

FOOTNOTE

*This has been modified from an original article published in

The Worm Runner's Digest
Vol. 15, No. 1, Dec. 1973, 122-126

which was in turn also published in

Systems and Management Annual
1975, C. West Churchman Ed.,
Petrocelli/Charter, N.Y. 511-518.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Scudder, C.L. and Richardson, D.
On the behavioural effects of bilateral glossopharyngealectomy in mice.
Psychon. Sci, 16 (3): 141-143,1969.

2. Scudder, C.L., Avery, D. and Karczmar, A.G.
Study of avoidance conditioning in five genera and strains of mice.
Agressologia 10; 135-144, 1969.

3. Scudder, CL.
The Mind: An Evolving System of Models. In Fields Within Fields Within Fields,
Julius Stedman, Ed. 14: 49-53, Winter, 1975.

4. Ashby, W.R.
Design for a brain.
London: Chapman and Hall, 1952.

5. Glassman, R.E.
Persistence and loose couping in living systems.
Behavioural Science, 18(2), 83-98, 1973

6. Callahan, J.J
The curvature of Space in a Finite Universe;
Sci. Amer. Vol. 235 90-100. 1976

7. Scudder, C.L.
On the Environmental Mind.
Systems and Management Science Annual, C. West Churchman, Editor. pg. 5-15. 1975

8. Scudder, C.L.
Mindless Meaning, Meaningless Mind.
Perspectives In Biology and Medicine, 19(4), 533-536, 1976

9. Scudder, C.L. Kelipoth,
in World Union, Vol. XVI, No. 7, 2-16, 1976