Perceptual Control Theory (PCT) has been around for over 50 years, leaving a trail of papers, books, websites, posts, conversations, videos all over the web. This is a quick guide to get started with the most basic materials: introductory texts, books, demonstrations, papers, websites and finding others interested in PCT. Welcome!
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Control is a process of acting on the world we perceive to make it the way we want it to be, and to keep it that way. Examples of control: standing upright; walking; steering a car; scrambling eggs; scratching an itch; knitting socks; singing a tune. Extruding a pseudopod to absorb a nanospeck of food (all organisms control, not only human beings). The smallest organisms control by biochemical means, bigger ones by means of a nervous system.
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A simple start…
PCT stands for Perceptual Control Theory. Big words, eh?
The ‘big idea’ behind PCT is simple but don’t be surprised if it takes a while to get your head around.
This is it….
‘Behaviour is the control of perception’
That’s it.
Or more simply, we do things to get what we want – now that sounds too simple!
Let’s take it a step at a time…
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Elements of the control loop have been labeled slightly different by different people at different times and for different purposes, whether for a very plain explanation or for more mathematical treatment of the physical functions. Dag Forssell describes the elements of the control loop step by step, as an introduction to the basics of PCT.
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International Association for Perceptual Control Theory
PCT is emerging as a force in robotics. PCT lends itself well to the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics because it provides an exact mathematical framework to model psychological processes. […]
To manage a successful business, you need to know what people want, how your business is perceived, and how to deal with people. It’s ripe for a PCT approach! […]
In explaining how living things control their perception, PCT is clearly highly relevant to psychology. Contemporary articles are making the case to the wider establishment that closed-loop, circular causality is much closer to how living systems actually function than the approach researchers still use. […]
A comprehensive introduction to PCT and its implications for the social and physical environment, on a global scale, are described in an online article by Kent McClelland. There are also a number of online articles that relate […]
When people find themselves struggling control has been disrupted. It is the loss of control not control, therefore, that is the problem when people are psychologically distressed. […]
At present, the application of PCT to Law is at its early stages. Hugh Gibbons is one exception. He has co-authored a biological model of human rights based around the tenets of PCT and he also illustrates a case using PCT in this book, “The Death of Jeffrey Stapleton”, published online. […]
Philip J. Runkel “I started reading your book to see whatever you have to say about systems. Then I really got fascinated by your book and read it from start to finish. Very impressive! And […]
William T. Powers Preface This book represents, I hope, a step on the path back to a concept of man as autonomous, and away from the concept of man as automaton. Yet in allowing my […]
Timothy A. Carey Routledge; 1st edition (December 1, 2017) Book description Inappropriate health care is an escalating and expensive problem. It affects high income, middle income, and low income countries and wastes billions of dollars […]
Timothy A. Carey, Sara J. Tai, and Robert Griffiths Palgrave Macmillan; 1st ed. 2021 edition (April 5, 2021) Book Description This book offers a radically different perspective on the topic of health inequity. Carey, Tai, […]
Hugh G. Petrie “I think that this book will be ‘compulsory reading’ in graduate schools of education around the country, and that it will arouse a vigorous and healthy controversy by shaking people out of […]
About Bill Powers Contents Page Foreword In 1979, Bill Powers wrote a prophecy: “A scientific revolution is just around the corner, and anyone with a personal computer can participate in it…. [T]he particular subject matter […]