[From Bjoern Simonsen (2000.11.30.1300 GMT +1)]
from Bruce Abbott (2000.11.28.2200 EST)]
Neither Ric nor Jeff followed up my problems when I asked for help in
modeling.
That's OK.
Let me instead of try to see if my understanding of PCT is as others.
So it would appear that cigarette smokers are controlling for the level of
nicotine in their systems. And all those cigarette company execs said that
smokers weren't smoking for the nicotine, they just like the taste!
I am not sure how I shall understand your last sentence. I think you are
ironically towards the cigarette companies. But I make the most of the
chance and generalize a little.
I haven't read
DeGrandpre, Bickel, Hughes, and Higgens study from(1992) where they
reviewed 17 studies
that manipulated the nicotine content of cigarettes, and they plotted
economic demand functions to show the effects of changing nicotine levels.
where they concludes
....... Conversely, if smokers are given cigarettes with higher nicotine
level levels, they smoke fewer cigarettes per day.
[Mazur, 1998, pp. 228-229]
To me is their conclusion to simple and also maybe wrong. They think as
behaviorists where less nicotine in each cigarette is the input that returns
more cigarettes as a response.
Of course cigarette smokers are controlling for the level of nicotine in
their systems. There are "sensors" in the system that perceive the nicotine
level. But there are also "sensors" that perceive the taste, and the smell.
There are also "sensors" that perceive memories for what you did last time
the person finished breakfast. And sensors that perceive memories for the
well-being of smoking last time the person solved a co-worker problem.
There are also "sensors" perceiving the memory from last time the person had
started the car and found his place in the traffic.
There are many "sensors" controlling different disturbances which lead the
person to lightening a new cigarette. And I can imagine a person walking on
the street who is putting out his cigarette. (I now imagine that the
reference has a value just like the value of the perception of high enogh
nicotine level in the blood). Turning a corner he meets his old friend. When
they are talking his fiend lighten his cigarette and the smell disturbs the
control system to our person. And also he lightened his cigarette.
Let me stop a long history. It is difficulty to know what other people
control. Somebody (among them Rick) are good to tell how we can test what
other people control. I find it difficulty.
You Bruce A know better than me if DeGrandpre, Bickel, Hughes, and Higgens
tested what the 17 studies controlled for when they smoke more cigarettes
with lower level of nicotine.
But I don't think they tested how many problems the 17 studies worked wit
each day, how many times the had started the car and found their place in
the traffic and so on.
I am afraid this is study where DeGrandpre, Bickel, Hughes, and Higgens just
studied the actions after they had presented what they thought were a few
disturbances to the 17 studies. You can tell me Bruce A.
My conclusion is: It is not interesting to learn which actions people turn
out with after they have been disturbed in some selected ways. People
controls more than the situations they are put into. And some times are
their actions are result of their control of other disturbances or memories
than the disturbances other people put them into.
For me PCT is a theory about how I behave. I feel myself on thin ice when I
explain the behavior of others.
Bjoern