@mary meagher:
I can't say for certain - obviously it would be more difficult to tell from an objective standpoint. What I found that was interesting during the original multi-thread discussion* was the fact that there were several similar incidents going back at least to Northwest Airlines Flight 6231 in 1974. This number includes Birgenair 301 and West Caribbean 708.
The respective aircraft involved were a B727, B757 and MD-82 - all of which had a conventional linked yoke system as the primary flight control. What I take this to mean is that while it's technically possible for connected flight controls to inform the non-handling pilot through tactile means (whereas independent controls cannot), it's certainly possible (maybe even likely) that such information will be disregarded.
[EDIT : Anyone wanting to see pretty much every angle of the connected vs. independent PFC debate can do so on the original threads - it's a long slog though. I hope I'm not the only one who doesn't want to see any of that ground covered again here!
]