Striving, Playing and Learning

On aggression and the dynamics of learning in the play and struggle called 'life'

By Popko P. van der Molen & Johan M.G. van der Dennen

Presented at the 1978 Congress of the "Ethologische Gesellschaft" at Basel and at the First Congress of the European Section of the International Society for the Research on Aggression (I.S.R.A.) at Strassburg, sept. 1981.

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Summary

A novel model on the dynamics of learning is presented which bears particular significance to the notion of (violent) aggressiveness. It suggests, among other things, that aggressive behavior cannot be properly understood whithout considering the basic dynamics of learning involved, without recognizing the shifting balance between 'striving and playing' and without recognizing the prevailing balance between social skills and 'unskills'. If any of these aspects are not considered, 'Aggression' or 'aggressiveness' will tend to be viewed as a separate phenomenon in its own right - which is unfortunately a widespread habit, not only in daily life, but also among the very investigators of the subject. The very use of labels such as 'Aggressiveness' and 'violence' keeps our attention trapped and hampers awareness of the underlying dynamic behavioral processes . In the first half of this paper some well-known models of aggression are critically reviewed and some of the basic concepts are subsequently integrated with theories of learning and with the 'reversal' hypothesis of antagonistic motivations, which replaces the optimum-arousal theory. An additional hypothesis on the long-term regulation of attention then completes the emerging model of learning. A model which stresses the antagonism between the possible growth of stereotyped and inflexible emergency reactions, and the long-term growth of varieties of subtle and flexible coping-response patterns (skills). The proposed model conflicts with many classical learning-conditioning concepts in that it predicts that the prevailing emotional (telic/paratelic, or centripetal/centrifugal) balance determines whether certain aversive and/or ambivalent stimuli result in the long run in attraction or in repulsion.

1. Critical recovery periods, an Experiment

In a series of experiments (Van der Molen, 1979, 198]), approximately 60 male housemice of the CPB's strain were weaned and isolated at the age of 21 days. Subsequently they were introduced every day or every other day into an unfamiliar observation cage, populated by a group of resident mice showing territorial aggressive behavior towards strangers. Being outnumbered by at least four to one and being on foreign territory, a trainee never had a chance to win and therefore was beaten up every time when introduced, and often slightly wounded. After 5 to 10 days of training, these trainees would immediately show avoidance behavior when being introduced, even when not under attack by any resident mouse at all.

There seemed, however, to be some sort of critical training frequency, i.e., if the periods of rest in isolation between the training introductions were too long, the effect of the whole training was the opposite of what was intended in the first place. If an 'experienced animal' or an experienced 'fleeing' trainee was introduced once every week or once every other week instead of every day, he would tend to put up skilled resistance. Such a male did not attack residents, but refrained from 'fleeing frantically' and appeared to 'stand firm' when necessary. By manipulating only the 'training frequency', trainees could be transformed from inexperienced males into either 'fearful fleeing males' or 'skilled fighters'. It should be remembered that neither type of trainee ever won a fight. During every introduction in their training period they had to fight against heavy odds. 'Skilled fighters' simply managed to hold out and fight back now and then without 'running for their lives' frantically. With the procedure described above trainees became either more skilled in fighting or more fearful than inexperienced males. Furthermore, in-experienced males varied more in their reaction patterns than did either of the two classes of trainees. Once a male had become a 'skilled fighter' it was very difficult to reshape him into a 'fearful fleeer' again. Apparently the same type of experience can lead to different learning processes, depending on the input frequency of the experience. The one direction in the learning spiral (deviation-amplifying mutual causal process: Maruyama, 1963) leads to stereotyped and intensive avoidance reactions; the other direction leads to increased skill in offering resistance.

Thus the temporal pattern of experience appears to be of great importance for its ultimate effect. Besides, individual mice differed in their critical digestion time for this type of experience; for the CPB's strain males in question it varied between 2 and 6 days. In general, males with a background of 'normal' social experience were rather well able to hold out against avalanches of territorial aggression. A 'normal' social history apparently provided ample opportunity for these mice to 'digest' their aggressive encounters in such a way that they became skilled in dealing adequately with agonistic social situations.

The following conclusions were drawn from these experiments:

(1) Male housemice can easily be trained in such a way that they perform a uniform type of avoidance behavior when introduced into a strange environment, inhabited by resident mice.

(2) The training required for turning an inexperienced male into a 'coward' is almost the same as the training needed to turn him into a 'hero'. The only difference is that in the former training schedule less 'digestion time' is available for every experience than in the latter.

(3) This 'critical digestion time' varies somewhat between individuals, and depends i.a. on their life-history.

1.1 Hormonal Feedback

A possible explanation of (part of) the phenomenon of 'critical frequencies of experience' may be found in the influence of fearful experiences on the endocrine system. Fear reduces for instance the testosterone level and with that probably the tendency to put up resistance when provoked (Bermond, 1977). Long training intervals allow this and other hormone levels to return to normal, but when the intervals between the fearful experiences are too short, the effects accumulate, thus rendering the individual inclined to flee instead of putting up resistance when challenged again. A considerable amount of experimental evidence is available to support this idea. For instance, Eleftheriou & Church (1968) demonstrated that in mice the blood plasma levels of LH, LH-RF and FSH decreased after aggressive encounters. The hormonal changes in losers appeared to be cumulative in contrast to the hormonal changes in winner-mice. Rose et al. (1972) demonstrated similar hormonal effects in rhesus monkeys. Many investigators (e.g. Bronson et al., 1973; Leshner, 1975; Schuurman, 1981, and in: Wiepkema & Van Hooff, 1977) found that aggressive encounters brought about stronger physiological changes (i.a., in blood sugar level) in losers than in winners. In more anthropomorphic terms: A conflict or encounter which elicits emergency reactions and raises anxiety in the subordinate may well represent an ordinary - eventually exciting - matter of routine to the dominant. All this means that apart from opposite conditioning effects of aggressive encounters on winners and losers on the neural level, a stable behavioral divergence between the social roles is still further enhanced and consolidated by different hormonal adaptations (Leshner, 1975). Similar effects have also been demonstrated in humans. Kreuz et al. (1972) conducted physio¬logical studies on trainees in a military camp and found that in periods of high tension, stress and extremely hard work, their testosterone level decreased considerably and recovered only gradually after relaxation.

1.2 Recovery Intervals and Learning

Apart from the hormonal feedback as depicted above, differential 'learning' processes on the neural level are involved as well (Leshner, 1975). Because animals in a Bèta-role and animals in an Alpha-role experience aggressive encounters in a different way (losing and winning resp.), different neural information is stored and processed. Besides, as e.g. Buchholtz (1978) and Trincker (1966) point out, there is a great functional and physiological difference between short-term memory storage and long-term memory storage. And there are limits to the amount of experiences of a certain type pro time unit that an individual can sucessfully digest and transform into (greater) long-term skills. This phenomenon has been established in a wide range of species from insects (Gross, 1978) to Man (Buss, 1973, pp. 278-280). The neural and hormonal feedback systems function synergistically. Whereas in lower developed species hormonal changes are relatively important, we may expect that in neurally higher evolved species neural mechanisms of adaptation will be relatively important in comparison with the purely hormonal mechanisms.

2. Some models of agonistic behaviour

Below, a general model is construed that covers adaptational mechanisms of various complexities and various functional levels, hormonal as well as neural, and including the higher learning processes in Man. In order to arrive at that model, we first proceed with reviewing some current models on aggression and on agonistic behaviour in general. For it is assumed that in particular those learning processes are of paramount importance for the individual, that lead to skills in dealing with agonistic encounters, other aspects of role-conflict, etc.

2.1 The Conflict- or Ambivalence Hypothesis

Somewhat oversimplified, this hypothesis states that agonistic and related behaviors are the product of activation of, and interactions between, two major antagonistic 'drives1 or 'tendencies': the attack- or approach-tendency and escape- or withdrawal-tendency. Many courting behaviors may similarly be considered as the product of activation and interactions of 3 tendencies, viz. the attack-, escape- and sex-tendency (see e.g., Tinbergen, 1952; Baerends et al., 1955; Kruijt, 1964; Hinde, 1966; Baerends, 1975). 'Approach' and 'withdrawal' behaviors may shade off into one another through intermediate - compromise - types of re¬sponse, depending on the balance between the attack- and escape-tendency. Such compromise movements or postures are often postulated to be the evolutionary origin of a communicative signal or display. If the basic tendencies are highly activated, the antagonist behavior types tend to ical branch of catastrophe theory as presented by e.g. Thorn & Zeeman (1974) and Zeeman (1976) (see Fig. 1). This model of agonistic behavior, however, accounts only for short-term changes in mood and behavior. No predictions are implied that reach beyond the particular agonistic set¬ting under scope. The catharsis hypothesis, on the other hand, is pri¬marily concerned with long-term predictions.