[From Bruce Abbott (950925.1250 EST)]
Rick Marken (950925.0940) --
So you wanted to perceive no movement of the car, you were perceiving
yourself moving backward, you tried to bring this perception to the reference
state (no movement) in the usual way (by pressing on the brake) and there was
no change in the perception of movement; the error signal driving the output
(pressing the brake) remained large. This physiological consequences of
this large error signal (muscle contractions, for example) result in the
experience of anxiety.
Rick, I think you've nailed part of the answer (anxiety arises via a failure
of action to control a perception); however, I suspect there's more to it
than that. The perceived _consequences_ of this failure must be dire. If
the perception of strong muscular output were all that was necessary to
produce anxiety, people would feel anxious every time they exerted
themselves. Pushing on the brake pedal of my car while doing 30 mph and
finding that the brakes don't work would not be especially anxiety provoking
if there were nothing in front of my path for the next half mile; it's the
prospect of impact that is responsible for the anxiety.
By the way, in appealing to muscular effort (sensory feedback from the
periphery) to explain anxiety, you have taken a position very much like that
of J. B. Watson. Next you'll be telling us that thinking is just subvocal
movement of the organs of speech! (A delicious irony, don't you think ...
er ... subvocalize?) (;->
Regards,
Bruce