Making Organisms Model Human Behavior: Situated Models in North-American Alcohol Research, since 1950
Leonelli, Sabina; Ankeny, Rachel A.; Nelson, Nicole C.; et al.Ramsden, Edmund
Date: 28 July 2014
Article
Journal
Science in Context
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Publisher DOI
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Abstract
We examine the criteria used to validate the use of nonhuman organisms in
North-American alcohol addiction research from the 1950s to the present day. We
argue that this field, where the similarities between behaviors in humans and nonhumans
are particularly difficult to assess, has addressed questions of model validity by
transforming ...
We examine the criteria used to validate the use of nonhuman organisms in
North-American alcohol addiction research from the 1950s to the present day. We
argue that this field, where the similarities between behaviors in humans and nonhumans
are particularly difficult to assess, has addressed questions of model validity by
transforming the situatedness of non-human organisms into an experimental tool. We
demonstrate that model validity does not hinge on the standardization of one type of
organism in isolation, as often the case with genetic model organisms. Rather,
organisms are viewed as necessarily situated: they cannot be understood as a model
for human behavior in isolation from their environmental conditions. Hence the
environment itself is standardized as part of the modeling process; and model validity is
assessed with reference to the environmental conditions under which organisms are
studied.
Social and Political Sciences, Philosophy, and Anthropology
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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