Perceptual control theory

Perceptual control theory (PCT) is a model of behavior based on the principles of negative feedback, but differing in important respects from engineering control theory. Results of PCT experiments have demonstrated that an organism controls neither its own behavior, nor external environmental variables, but rather its own perceptions of those variables. Actions are not controlled, they are varied so as to cancel the effects that unpredictable environmental disturbances would otherwise have on controlled perceptions. According to the standard catch-phrase of the field, "behavior is the control of perception." PCT demonstrates circular causation in a negative feedback loop closed through the environment. This fundamentally contradicts the classical notion of linear causation of behavior by stimuli, in which environmental stimuli are thought to cause behavioral responses, mediated (according to cognitive psychology) by intervening cognitive processes.

Numerous computer simulations of specific behavioral situations demonstrate its efficacy, with extremely high correlations to observational data (0.95 or better), which are vanishingly rare in the so-called 'soft' sciences. While the adoption of PCT in the scientific community has not been widespread, it has been applied not only in experimental psychology and neuroscience, but also in sociology, linguistics, and a number of other fields, and has led to a method of psychotherapy called the method of levels.

A tradition from Aristotle through William James recognizes that behavior is purposeful rather than merely reactive. However, the only evidence for intentions was subjective. Behaviorists following Wundt, Thorndyke, Watson, and others rejected introspective reports as data for an objective science of psychology. Only observable behavior could be admitted as data.

There follows from this stance the assumption that environmental events (stimuli) cause behavioral actions (responses). This assumption persists in cognitive psychology, which interposes cognitive maps and other postulated information processing between stimulus and response, but otherwise retains the assumption of linear causation from environment to behavior.

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