[From Rick Marken (970310.1100)]
Lars Christian Smith (031097 12:30 CET) --
You have often stated your skepticism towards conventional psychology.
Well, it's not really "skepticism". It's just that, given what I now
understand about how control systems work I know that you can't find out
much about them using conventional methodology.
how would you actually teach an introductory psychology course? How
would you organize the course? What would you include, other than PCT?
I would start by pointing out the ubiquity of the controlling done by living
systems. I would present tons of evidence that organisms shape (control) the
environment, rather than vice versa. I would point to achievemments as
simple as walking and as skillful as writing fugues as evidence of
control. I would have all kinds of simple demos to illustrate the nature of
control (the ability to consistently produce preselected results in the face
of inconsistency). I would spend a LOT of time showing the students what
control IS, that it's all around them (and what they do) ALL the time, and
that it is what distinguishes the behavior of living systems from that of
non-living systems.
Once the phenomenon of control (purposeful behavior) is understood I would
describe the nature of systems that control. This would be done in the
context of simple control tasks (tracking tasks), but the appropriateness of
these control tasks as a model of ALL controlling would be clear (or should
be made clear) to the student at this point. In this section of the course
the student should come to understand what "control of perception" means. I
would also show that the perceptions that organisms control can be as
"simple" as the position of a line or as complex as one's position on
abortion. I would probably point out examples of the students' control of
complex perceptions at this point.
Once the student understands the phenomenon and the model of control I would
desribe how to study control; how to determine what living systems are
controlling. I would use demos like the "coin game" to illustrate this
methodology. I would also use some "real life" Tests of control;
conversational approaches to determine what is controlled, etc. To the extent
possible I would try to find studies in the "conventional" literature which
are either suggestive of POSSIBLE controlled variables (such as the
ethological studies Gary mentioned) or that actually are tests for controlled
variables (like the baseball catching article in Science). The idea would
be to help the student learn how to GUESS (based on observation of overt
behavior) what variables an organisms MIGHT be controlling and to suggest
studies (based on their new understanding of the nature and theory of
control) that would TEST these hypotheses.
I would then explain a bit about possible hierarchical relationships
between control systems in individuals (using the "portable demonstrator",
my spreadsheet model and some of the demos in my unpublished "Hierarchical
behavior..." paper). I would then do a little section on learning and
development of new control systems. I would probably rely heavily, here, on
the work done by the Plooij's on chimp and infant develpment of control.
And, finally, I would discuss what one might expect to see when independent
control systems interact in the same environment; this would be the "social
psychology" section of the course.
As you can see, there would not be much in this class about the "classical"
findings in psychology. I would use some ethological data but this would be
included in order to illustrate what we DON'T yet know and what we WANT to
know - not what we do know (since, as I noted in a previous post, the
research to determine what we want to know -- controlled variables --
hasn't been done yet).
I might also include some "classical" perceptual demos, but only to help
students understand what perception IS; and why we need models of the
perceptual process that converts what physics tells us is on our sensory
surfaces into what we experience as the outside (and inside) world.
I left academia because I knew that, even if the College would allow me to
teach an Intro to Psychology course like this (they would have), it would
not have been fair to the students. So I've been teaching this course on the
net for the last seven years instead;-)
Best
Rick