Here’s a proposed rewrite of the category intro:
This category is for discussion of the observable phenomena of behavior. PCT explains purposeful behavior as control: acting to keep variable aspects of the environment in states which the subject organism prefers. Observable phenomena of behavior include:
- The controlled variable (CV).
- Its reference value.
- The subject’s means of perceiving it.
- The subject’s means of affecting it.
- A representative selection of other influences that could affect it (disturbances).
Discussion may include speculation about the kinds of perceptions being controlled and proposals for how to test those speculations. The place of a given CV in the hierarchy should be indicated not only by a label from the levels that Powers proposed on phenomenological grounds, but also by the subject’s means of control in terms of lower levels of control, and by higher-level CVs which might be controlled (in part) by setting or influencing the reference value for the given CV. This may be done by reference to the rows where these CVs are delineated in the spreadsheet that has been provided for collecting examples of different kinds of controlled variables and the behavior of controlling them.