Читать книгу The Behavior of Animals - Группа авторов - Страница 41

The conclusion that a sign-stimulus is configurational is merely a provisional way of describing the complexity of the sensory stimulating process. It is thus a challenge rather than a solution, a challenge to analyse the complex system of processes denoted by the convenient collective name ‘stimulus’. […] Accepting a mere descriptive term as a causal explanation […] causes a false satisfaction which is a hindrance to further research.(Tinbergen 1951; reissued 1989, p. 79 top)

Here, Tinbergen is stressing the need to analyze the processes underlying ethological concepts—down to the neuronal level—by means of a broad spectrum of physiological/anatomical methods. He introduced the discipline of this causal-analytical research as “ethophysiology,” today called neuroethology or behavioral neurobiology (Ewert 1976; Carew 2004; Zupanc 2019).