[from Gary Cziko 2006.10.17 16:33 GMT]
An interesting article showing how the test for the controlled variable can be used to investigate the perception of color:
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/061009/full/061009-13.html
–Gary
[From Rick Marken (2006.10.17.1120)]
Gary Cziko (2006.10.17 16:33 GMT)
An interesting article showing how the test for the controlled variable can be used to investigate the perception of color:
Boy, these Germans do great work in psychology. I became very interested in the work of a group of Germans at one of the Max Plank Institutes who did some great work on two handed coordination, which shows that what is controlled in coordination action is input, not output (see my model of one of their two handed control studies at Bimanual Coordination).
The article you refer to doesn't really use the test for the controlled variable inasmuch as they are not systematically trying to determine what perception is being controlled in this situation. What they are using is called the "method of adjustment", which is a psychophysical technique that allows a person to adjust some physical variable to produce some criterion perception (like "just detect" of "just the same"). In this case, the subjects are adjusting wavelength until they perceive "gray". This is a lot like the test because the subject acts to compensate for a disturbance to a perception (of grayness in this case). One of the "disturbances" in this case is the type of fruit pictured. When asked to control just the hue of the picture, the type of fruit pictured apparently has an effect on what hue is perceived. This is a very cool finding. I think it would have been interesting -- and more test like -- if they had varied the degree to which the fruit pictured looked like, say, a banana, and see if that led to changes in the adjustments made to make the picture look gray.
Best
Rick
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