{"id":7498,"date":"2019-05-22T15:57:31","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T15:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/circular_-or_non-linear-_causality\/"},"modified":"2019-05-22T15:57:31","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T15:57:31","slug":"circular_-or_non-linear-_causality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/circular_-or_non-linear-_causality\/","title":{"rendered":"Circular (or non-linear) causality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Broadly speaking, this form of causality is one in which the cause reproduces itself over time. &nbsp;It can be symbolised in the following way: A &lt;&#8211;&gt; B (i.e., A effects B, just as B effects A) in contrast to linear causality A &#8211;&gt; B (i.e., A is the antecedent to or causes B). &nbsp;Also, it is the rate at which&nbsp;[A effects B] changes as&nbsp;[B effects A]. &nbsp;Examples of circular causality from cybernetics are negative (deviation-reducing) and positive (deviation-amplifying) feedback. &nbsp;All told, it boils down to instances of self-regulation, a simple example based on negative feedback being a thermostat to maintain a constant room temperature. &nbsp;Going beyond such simple systems to self-organizing complex systems, circular causality is inferred in the two-way relationship between order and control parameters (i.e., an order parameter at the macroscopical level constrains the behavior of a control parameter at the microscopical level, but in turn a control parameter can change the state of an order parameter when it exceeds some critical value). &nbsp;This interpretation in terms of brain functioning is expressed by <a href=\"http:\/\/sulcus.berkeley.edu\/\" target=\"_self\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/sulcus.berkeley.edu\/&amp;target=_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Walter J. Freeman<\/a> as a top-down macroscopic state (e.g., attention) simultaneously influencing the actions of individual neurons at the microscopical level that in turn create and sustain the macroscopical state bottom up. &nbsp;A similar interpretation based on the principles of self-organization can be found in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/~wmace\/publications\/Ask_inside.pdf\" target=\"_self\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/~wmace\/publications\/Ask_inside.pdf&amp;target=_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">James J. Gibson<\/a>&#8216;s ecological psychology in which perception and action are depicted as being inseparably linked or coupled via circular causality.<\/p>\n<p>See <a href=\"causality_-in_philosophy-\">Causality (in philosophy)<\/a>, <a href=\"control_parameter\">Control parameter<\/a>, <a href=\"cybernetics\">Cybernetics<\/a>, <a href=\"downward_causation_-or_macrocausation-\">Downward causation (or macrocausation)<\/a>, <a href=\"ecological_psychology\">Ecological psychology<\/a>, <a href=\"feedback\">Feedback<\/a>, <a href=\"order_parameter\">Order parameter<\/a>, <a href=\"perception-action_coupling\">Perception-action coupling<\/a>, <a href=\"self-organization\">Self-organization<\/a>, System<\/p>\n<p><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Broadly speaking, this form of causality is one in which the cause reproduces itself over time. &nbsp;It can be symbolised in the following way: A &lt;&#8211;&gt; B (i.e., A effects B, just as B effects A) in contrast to linear causality A &#8211;&gt; B (i.e., A is the antecedent to or causes B). &nbsp;Also, it &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/circular_-or_non-linear-_causality\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Circular (or non-linear) causality&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-7498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-glossary","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}