Along the lines of 'what' as a way to tap the controlled variable what do
people think of some other words proposed by Austin and Vancouver(1995) and
others to look at Control System functioning such as;
A question asking 'the importance?' of the what, or controlled variable,
tapping in on 'gain'in the control system.
And the use of 'how?'(down heirarchy) and 'why?' (up heirarchy) ( Little,
1983) to investigate relationships bewteen controlled variables in the
control system hierarchy.
Thanks greatly
Rohan Lulham.
ยทยทยท
-----Original Message-----
From: Control Systems Group Network (CSGnet)
[mailto:CSGNET@LISTSERV.UIUC.EDU]On Behalf Of Rick Marken
Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2001 12:40 AM
To: CSGNET@LISTSERV.UIUC.EDU
Subject: Re: PCT applied to research on the Physical Environment
[From Rick Marken (2001.09.05.0740)]
Rohan Lulham wrote:
Any references for some nice little spins of the 'The test'which I could
use. I have found it difficult to find many applications of the test at
the
scale I am looking... and based on that it will most probably have to use
an
interactive interview format. I've got a couple of books not held in our
library coming in which may have some clues, but any others from CSGnet.
I think an interview format would be fine. Just ask people what they
want ("want" is just a fancy way of saying "reference state for a
controlled variable"); they'll probably be happy to tell you what they
are (and would like to be) controlling for. Since you're interested in
architecture you might build a model of the facility to be used to
determine what people might or might not want in their architectural
world. Just do what Bill Powers suggested a few days ago; show people a
model of something, like a cell, and ask "Is this what you want?" Then
start changing the model until the person keeps saying "yes". The state
of your model is then the reference state of one of the perceptions (of
cell ambiance) the person is controlling for.
Although this verbal interview approach to determining what people want
(what variables the are controlling) is not particularly precise, it's
probably fine for your purposes.
Best
Rick
--
Richard S. Marken, Ph.D.
MindReadings.com
10459 Holman Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Tel: 310-474-0313
E-mail: marken@mindreadings.com