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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 [...]

Education

January 30, 2022

Education is about more than teaching. Within education we need to know how to motivate students, how can we maximise the degree to which people learn, and often, how do we manage students or pupils when they don’t want to learn, or they disrupt others? […]

Stairs

Method of Levels

January 30, 2022

Method of Levels introductory text to follow

Film, Media & Literature

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

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! […]

Biology and Neuroscience

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

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. […]

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. […]

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. […]

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. […]

Control in the Classroom. An Adventure in Learning and Achievement

Timothy A. Carey “This new book is a great addition to the educational literature. It introduces educators to the most important and revolutionary new development in psychology in decades, PCT. And it does this in […]

Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Approaches to a Science of Life. Word Pictures and Correlations versus Working Models

William T. Powers & Philip J. Runken Throughout this volume, Phil and Bill exchange candid assessments of the players, methods and dominant approaches in psychology and the social sciences, and the difficulties that go with […]

Tensegrity Tower

Powers of Perceptual Control

Martin Taylor’s ongoing book project describing the foundations of perceptual control theory and its many implications. […]

Regression periods in human infancy

August 29, 2024

Editor: Heimann, Mikael Heimann, Mikael, ed. (2003). Regression periods in human infancy. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. ISBN 978-0805840988. Abstract Regression periods play a central role in the psychological development of the human baby. Studies of infants […]

PCT: A Book of Readings. An Overview of the Third Grand Theory in Psychology Introductions, Readings, and Resources

Dag Forssell, Editor The May 2016 edition is now a 424-page book that includes 34 papers with selections from 26 books. Subjects include psychotherapy, management, emotions, baby brain development, computer simulations and tutorials, scientific revolutions, […]

Understanding and Changing the Things You Do

“Wow. I am impressed with this book! It is comprehensive, neatly structured, and provides a great scientific context for introducing Perceptual Control Theory to the layperson. The explanation builds up gradually over the chapters. Fantastic.” – Warren Mansell, DPhil, DClinPsy, CPsychol […]

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