| bnhpct
November 18 |
- | - |
Picking up from the topic “Controlled Variables are Perceptual Variables”:
Controlled Variables are Perceptual Variables
Because our only knowledge about the reality is based on perceptions, we cannot study the accuracy of perception by comparing reality and perceptions and neither can we derive the types of perceptions from the structures of reality. The types of perceptions can still be studied only by studying perceptions. Similarly, the accuracy of perceptions must be studied by comparing perceptions to other perceptions.
BN: Yes, we can agree with Rick that p is a function of variables {v1, v2, …, vn}, and we can say that (in principle) those variables are specified by the physical sciences, but we cannot legitimately punt the question of reality over the wall to those epistemically prior sciences. That is mere evasion of the question.
| 
RM: What question is being evaded?
RM: Perhaps this is a good place to point out that in actual PCT research controlled variables are rarely described in terms of physical variables. The variables {v1, v2, …, vn} that are the basis of most of the controlled variables that have been identified by PCT research are actually perceptual variables themselves: such as the length of the lines that make up the sides of the rectangle controlled in my “What is Size” demo or the colored shapes that make up the components of the program controlled in my “Program Control” demo (yes, it is a program that is controlled in that demo – not a sequence or sequence of sequences; there is no sequence that is maintained in that demo when you are controlling a program).
RM: It is these kinds of definitions of controlled variables – definitions in terms of lower level perceptual variables of which the controlled variables are a function – that are sought in PCT research. The question of the correspondence between controlled variables and their environmental correlates is rarely asked because, except possibly for the lowest level perceptual variables – intensities and sensations – there is no environmental correlate of these perceptions variables. The definition of controlled variable in terms of lower level perceptions is enough to give one an idea of what aspects of the physical environment – the environment described by the models of physics and chemistry – are actually controlled
Best
Rick