FROM PLANS TO MEDIATED ACTIONS
Commentary on Bridgeman on Consciousness

Abstract

We argue that evolution has supported a combinatorial explosion in the possibilities for action in man as a result of evolutionary pressure from three distinct sources: communication, learning, and mediated action. The latter is intimately related to language use and planning and hinges on the incorporation of plans conveyed by others into once own actions. The individual development of sophisticated planning ability is a complex process of gradual internalization of sociocultural entities that come increasingly to mediate actions. The most significant research question concerns the process of mediation rather than the structure of plans or other mediating entities and therefore propose that mediated actions, rather than plans, occupy center stage in psychology.

Keywords

References

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