Self-Inhibition and the Recovery Cycle

Abstract

The present chapter describes a central concept in the node structure theory: the process of self-inhibition. I first examine the likely mechanism of self-inhibition and some theoretical reasons for postulating a self-inhibitory process. I then outline some evidence bearing on the self-inhibition hypothesis, some predictions that follow from self-inhibition, and an application of the self-inhibition hypothesis to the phenomenon of pathological stuttering.

Organization… is just as important a property of behavior as it is of perceptions. The configurations of behavior, however, tend to be predominantly temporal — it is the sequence of motions that flows onward so smoothly as the creature runs, swims, flies, talks, or whatever. What we must provide, therefore, is some way to map the cognitive representation into the appropriate pattern of activity.

(G. A. Miller, E. Gallanter, K. H. Pribram, 1960, p. 11)