Example
A simple negative feedback control system is a cruise control system for a car. A cruise control system has a sensor which "perceives" speed as the rate of spin of the drive shaft directly connected to the wheels. It also has a driver-adjustable 'goal' specifying a particular speed. The sensed speed is continuously compared against the specified speed by a device (called a "comparator") which subtracts the currently-sensed input value from the stored goal value. The difference (the error signal) determines the throttle setting (the accelerator depression), so that the engine output is continuously varied to counter variations in the speed of the car. This type of classical negative feedback control was worked out by engineers in the 1930s and 1940s.
If the speed of the car starts to drop below the goal-speed, for example when climbing a hill, the small increase in the error signal, amplified, causes engine output to increase, which keeps the error very nearly at zero. If the speed exceeds the goal, e.g. when going down a hill, the engine is throttled back so as to act as a brake, so again the speed is kept from departing more than a barely-detectable amount from the goal speed (brakes are needed only if the hill is too steep). The result is that the cruise control system maintains a speed close to the goal as the car goes up and down hills, and as other disturbances such as wind affect the car's speed. This is all done without any planning of specific actions, and without any blind reactions to stimuli.
The same principles of negative feedback control (including the ability to nullify effects of unpredictable external or internal disturbances) apply to living control systems. The thesis of PCT is that animals and people do not control their behavior; rather, they vary their behavior as their means for controlling their perceptions, with or without external disturbances. This directly contradicts the historical and still widespread assumption that behavior is the final result of stimulus inputs or cognitive plans.
Read more about this topic: Perceptual Control Theory
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