The Test goes like this:
1. Select a variable you think the person might be maintaining at some level. In other words, guess at an input quantity.
2. Predict what will happen if the person is not maintaining the variable at a preferred level.
3. Apply various amounts and directions of disturbance directly to the variable.
4. Measure the actual effects of the disturbances.
5. If the effects are what you predicted under the assumption that the person is not acting to control the variable, stop here. The person is indeed not acting to control it; you guessed wrong about the variable.
6. If an actual effect is markedly smaller than the predicted effect, look for what the person might be doing to oppose the disturbance. Look for a cause of the opposition to the disturbance which, by its own varying, can counterbalance variations in the input quantity. That cause may be caused by the person's output. You may have found the feedback function.
7. Look for the way the person can sense the variable. If you can find no way the person could sense the variable, the input quantity, stop. People cannot control what they cannot sense.
8. If you find a means of sensing, block it so that the person cannot now sense the variable. If the disturbance continues to be opposed, you have not found the right sensor. If you cannot find a sensor, stop. Make another guess at an input quantity.
9. If all of the above steps are passed, you have found the input quantity, the variable the person is controlling.
Seek college essay editing help? Our college essay editors are certified! Request college essay editing service at our site! Plagiarism-free editing! Using The Test is not easy. You must make guesses about internal standards and then change something in the environment that the person senses. If you succeed in changing it--if the person does not act to maintain it the way it was--then you have guessed wrong; there is nothing about the change you made that disturbed an input the person wants to maintain. If the person does act against the change you try to make, then you have guessed right, or at least you are on the right track. You know something more about the person than you did before. Of course, you may have guessed wrong about the feature of the change, the input quantity, you think the person is rectifying. You will find that out when your later predictions go wrong. Then you have to guess again, though you are ahead of the game, because you know the input has something to do with the change you tried to make in the environment. So after you guess right about one kind of environmental change the person will oppose, even though you missed the input quantity embedded in it, your second guess has a much better chance of being close to the mark than your first guess had. Still, you never know when the person might reorganize the internal standards. If that happens, then you must start over.