ABSTRACT
The dichotomy between mind and behavior has proved to be as beguiling and problematic in comparative psychology as have two other primary dichotomies: nature and nurture, and ontogeny and phylogeny. It is perhaps inevitable that close examination of one of the dichotomies should call up the issues associated with the other two. To adumbrate the conclusions of this chapter, it seems indisputable that the biological design of the information-processing system places constraints on what information is received and how it is then constructed and elaborated. Evolution assures variations in neural input and information integration that are serviceable for the species. For a developmentalist, however, that is only part of the story. A comparable process of epistemological constraint and construction recurs in the ontogeny of each organism in ways that ensure its proper functioning and adaptation.
