Behavioral and Brain Sciences



Open Peer Commentary

Ritualized behavior as a domain-general choice of actions


Hongbin Wang a1 and Paul Bello a2
a1 School of Health Information Sciences, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77030 Hongbin.Wang@uth.tmc.edu http://www.shis.uth.tmc.edu
a2 Air Force Research Laboratory, Information Directorate, Rome, NY 13441. Pello.Bello@rl.af.mil http://www.pbello.com

Article author query
wang h   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 
bello p   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 

Abstract

Although we agree that ritualized behavior is a mystery that calls out for an explanation, we do not think that the proposed domain-specific two-component system offers an empirically well-justified and theoretically parsimonious description of the phenomena. Instead, we believe that the deployment of domain-general mechanisms based on choice of actions could also explain the essential features of ritualized behavior.

(Published Online February 8 2007)