[from Gary Cziko 970220.2200 GMT]
I finally got around to trying out Rick Marken's latest Java demos of
perceptual control at http://www.leonardo.net/Marken/demos.html and must
say that I am most impressed.
The demos are a can be a little jerky on my slow 80 MHz PowerMac running
Netscape 3.1, but they are nonetheless very useful. I particularly like
the way that Rick embedded the demo screen within the documentation that
describes each demo.
I plan to make a lot of use of these and any other demos that Rick puts on
the Web. The first thing I need to do is link to them from the CSGnet
Website, and hope to get to this soon. I will also refer to them in the
chapter on PCT in the book I am writing and will use them to introduce
students to the phenomenon of perceptual control. Since I have access to
the Web (and a large projection screen) for my intro to statistics class,
it will be great to show the students how the notion of "independent
variable causing dependent variable" doesn't work after a few months of
going through all the statistical analyses which make just this assumption
about behavior!
I encourage all CSGnet participants to check out Rick's wonderful demos,
and let your friends know about them, too.
Nice work, Rick. I am very proud of myself for having encouraged you to
work on this!
--Gary