# The Test for the Controlled Variable

**URL:** <http://discourse.iapct.org/t/the-test-for-the-controlled-variable/134>\
**Category:** Methodology\
**Created:** [November 1, 2019, 7:53pm UTC](http://discourse.iapct.org/t/the-test-for-the-controlled-variable/134 "2019-11-01T19:53:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 18

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**Author:** ![rsmarken](http://discourse.iapct.org/user_avatar/discourse.iapct.org/rsmarken/32/3553_2.png) [@rsmarken](http://discourse.iapct.org/u/rsmarken)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2020, 12:26am UTC](http://discourse.iapct.org/t/the-test-for-the-controlled-variable/134/18 "2020-12-21T00:26:00Z")

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Hi Bruce

> > RM: That question is already answered in PCT: _both_.

> BN: Ah, I assumed you would get the reference.

RM: Still don’t.

> > RM: I see failed control as the same as no control.

> BN: Absence of observable output is not evidence of absence of control.

RM: It’s absence of a controlled variable that is evidence of absence of control.

> BN: There’s a value for “_V_ as influenced by _d_” if _V_ is not controlled…

> BN: Concurrently, the investigator is controlling a perception of _d_. This control of _d_ does indeed conflict with the subject’s control of _V_. …So far as I know, no one has modeled this purposeful limitation of a deliberately introduced conflict, though I have sketched a diagram:

> [@Controlled Variables are Perceptual Variables](http://discourse.iapct.org/t/controlled-variables-are-perceptual-variables/15681/10):
>
> Let me … make more explicit four things intended by the dyadic diagram.
> 
> ![image001161](http://discourse.iapct.org/uploads/default/original/2X/0/0a912ae3cbc0c21cdf691639c4a5595986a85c9b.jpeg)
> 
> > 1. It is essential to include the second control system, the observer-experimenter. [… etc.]

RM: This diagram is not a correct description of what the observer/experimenter does in the Test. Think about it in terms of my mind-reading demo ([Mindreading](https://www.mindreadings.com/ControlDemo/Mindread.html)). In that demo the computer is the observer/experimenter simultaneously testing to determine which of three avatars is being moved intentionally around the screen. The computer is not controlling for anything; it is simply measuring the average correlation between the disturbance to each avatar and the position of that avatar. It is testing for the controlled variable without controlling the hypothetical controlled variables.

> > RM: What is controlled is a perceptual analog, in the head, of a variable aspect of the world.

> BN: And thus, the experimenter is controlling a perceptual signal _q.i_, a perceptual analog in her head of a variable aspect of the world located inside the subject’s head, a perceptual signal _p_.

RM: The observer/experimenter is observing the correlation between disturbance and hypothetical controlled variable. If the correlation is low then the observer/experimenter is observing – _not controlling_ – the controlled variable, which is a perceptual variable in both observer and controller.

> > BN: As good William Shakespeare put it, all of this, and we as well,  
> > … are such stuff  
> > As dreams are made on, and our little life  
> > Is rounded with a sleep.

RM: Let’s hope so;-)

Best

Rick

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