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Quick guide to PCT

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! [...]
PCT in 11 steps - introduction by Bill Powers

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. [...]
A simple introduction to PCT

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… [...]
Once around the loop

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. [...]

Newsletter

July 6, 2023

Welcome to the Control Loop – the IAPCT newsletter. This newsletter shares updates on the latest developments in Perceptual Control [...]
New website

April 23, 2022

We proudly present to you our new IAPCT website. This site is build in wordpress by Eva de Hullu and [...]

Politics and Philosophy – a PCT introduction

January 30, 2022

PCT takes a strongly scientific approach to human nature. It proposes that people and other living systems are purposeful – and that the systems that are responsible for purposeful action are explainable in mechanistic terms. […]

Economics & Marketing

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! […]

Stairs

Method of Levels

January 30, 2022

Method of Levels introductory text to follow

Law

January 30, 2022

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. […]

Biology and Neuroscience

Bill Powers developed PCT with biology in mind. We can split the relevance of PCT into two parts – function and structure. […]

mental health

Interventions for Mental Health Problems

January 30, 2022

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. […]

Film, Media & Literature

Spiritual truths, 21st Century Renaissance, Computer Games, Pop and Rock Music, & more! […]

Psychology

January 30, 2022

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. […]

Robotics & Artificial Intelligence

January 30, 2022

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. […]

Behavior: The Control of Perception

January 29, 1973

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 […]

Living Control Systems III – The Fact of Control

Book + demonstration programs by William T. Powers (2008) Living Control Systems III continues Powers’ revolutionary approach to understanding living organisms as purposeful agents whose actions serve to control their environments. A unique feature of […]

Doing Research on Purpose

Richard S. Marken (2014) The core of the book are six papers by Dr. Richard S. Marken which have been published in peer reviewed journals over the past decade explaining why Perceptual Control Theory (PCT) […]

Principles-Based Counselling and Psychotherapy
A Method of Levels approach

December 11, 2022

Timothy A. Carey, Warren Mansell, and Sara J. Tai 2015, Routledge. ISBN 9780415738781 Book Description Many current approaches to the treatment of psychological problems focus on specific disorders and techniques that are purported to be […]

Casting Nets and Testing Specimens— Two Grand Methods of Psychology

Phil Runkel The spring semester is nearly half completed. I am using your book in two classes. My experience this year is identical to that last year., when I wrote to you, “As time passes […]

No Picture

A Foundational Explanation of Human Behavior

Bartley J. Madden Conventional psychology says your brain fits stimuli into a symbolic map of the world and calculates actions in response, an idea established in the early days of computers. But actually, even a […]

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