A Qualitative Look at Feedback Control Theory as a Style of Describing Behavior

The present paper reviews several ways feedback control theory has been used to describe tracking behavior and several qualitative experimental techniques. These techniques require only ordinal-level measurement and may aid any researcher investigating behavior whose temporal patterning is critical and which involves fairly continuous changes over time. One possible application in the area of stuttering behavior is presented in detail to show how these techniques can provide useful insights and hypotheses. Other suggested areas of application include the behavior of human social groups, motivational behavior, and emotional behavior.