Table 1.

Glossary of Control Theory Terms, Psychological Equivalent, and Definition

Control Theory	Psychological Equivalent	Definition
Physical plant	Psychological system	The dynamical system that is being controlled
Control inputs	Interventions/treatments	Intentional inputs to the system
Disturbance	Disturbance	Random inputs to the system (not measurement error)
Error	Measurement Error	Random error due to measurement (doesn’t impact the system)
State	Symptom value	The (possibly unobserved) values of the variables in the system
Observation	Measurement / Item	The observed measurement of a variable in the system
Energy	Cost of intervention	The overall cost of applying control inputs