Concerns identifying the processes and mechanisms of change during species-characteristic ontogeny. Change involves accounting for the transitions between a succession of states or attractors, an issue addressed by dynamical systems approaches such as catastrophe theory. In addition to the change problem, there is also the origin problem: events that predispose or prepare a developing organism to achieve a particular developmental outcome (e.g., the ability to emit cry vocalizations). In a seminal, but somewhat forgotten paper published in 1963, Nikolaas ‘Niko’ Tinbergen (1907-1988), one of the founders of ethology, emphasised an important distinction between change in the behavioral machinery during development and change in behavior during development. To quote: “Wecan conclude that the thrush itself, i.e. its behavioural machinery, has changedonly if the behaviour change occurred while the environment was heldconstant … When we turn from description to causal analysis, and ask in whatway the observed change in behavior machinery has been brought about, thenatural first step is to try and distinguish between environmental influencesand those within the animal … It is also important to realise that, in ontogeny, the conclusion that a certain changeis internally controlled (is ‘innate’) is reached by elimination.” (p. 424). Here, Tinbergen was criticizing the meaning of the term ‘innate’, put forward by Konrad Z. Lorenz (1903-1989) in the context of ontogenetic development, as being established by the elimination of environmental influences.
See Attractor, Catastrophe theory, Development, Developmental biology, Developmental hypothesis, Dynamical systems Evolutionary biology, Function, Growth, Human Connectome Project (HCP), Innate (3), Law, Law-like statement, Mechanism, Metamorphosis (or indirect development), Ontogenetic adaptation, Ontogeny, Organism, Organogenesis, Process, Species, Systemogenesis, Transition