ABSTRACT
Intersensory functioning has frequently been referred to as if it were a process, when in fact it is an outcome. That is, intersensory functioning is involved whenever there are joint influences of stimulation in more than one modality. However, different instances of intersensory functioning need not have any mechanisms in common. It can therefore be likened to other functional classes of behavior such as feeding or social behavior, where similarity of outcome has no implications with regard to the mechanisms whereby the outcome is accomplished. For example, although both amoebas and humans feed and the amoeba’s extension of a pseudopod and Oliver Twist’s extension of his porridge bowl can both be seen as related to feeding, any similarity in the mechanisms underlying the two “feeding responses” is at best trivial. The task is to determine how a similar outcome (e.g., feeding or intersensory function) is accomplished by different organisms in different contexts.
