Editorial: Perceptual control theory and its application

The fundamental idea of Perceptual Control Theory (PCT) has been known sinc e at least the time of Aristotle, and was well expounded by William James. It is that people act so as to bring about the conditions they desire-to pe rceive their world as they wish it to be. They control their perceptions. H owever, the technical understanding required to turn this idea into a theor y was largely developed only in this century. This editorial illustrates th e nature of hierarchic control, and shows how control tasks can be partitio ned between a human and a machine. It then considers some common but incorr ect objections to PCT as a basis for psychology, and finally describes the eight papers that constitute this Special Issue. (C) 1999 Academic Press.