Some conceptual problems with the classical theory of behaviour

Behaviour is usually assumed to depend on the reach of a critical intensity—termed reactivity threshold—by its motivation. This view represents a simple, predictive theoretical framework in ethology and animal psychology. However, it is here argued that only the influence of an isolated motivation on behaviour can be explained that way; that such a view fails to account for behaviour when several motivations are jointly activated. Upon analysis, the classical theory of behaviour (CTB) proves to be under-specified and thus leads to three conceptual problems that make it logically inconsistent for the study of multiple motivations. A revision of the CTB, called anticipatory dynamics model (ADM), is then developed in order to bring a theoretical solution to these conceptual problems. The ADM hypothesizes that an organism's motivational interactions are due to the limitation of the organism's attentional resources.