System Metaphor Research Articles

Towards a metaphorical biology

The metaphorical nature of biological language is examined and the use of metaphors for providing the linguistic context in which similarities and differences are made is described. Certain pervasive metaphors which are characterised by systemic properties are noted, and in order to provide some focus to the study, systemic metaphors associated with machine, text and organism are discussed. Other systemic metaphors such as society and circuit are also reported. Some details concerning interrelations between automaton and organism are presented in the light of the previous discussion. An approach towards the analysis of biosystem metaphors is outlined which relates part-whole, organisational level and systemic metaphors in a single model. Examples are provided throughout the discussion and mainly come from computing. The potential for metaphorical transfers between these domains is considered.

Why families are not like swamps, solar systems, or thermostats: Some limits of systems theory as applied to family therapy

Family systems theory presents an answer to the riddles of mental disorder and human functioning that stands in marked contrast to other prevailing views based on linearity and traditional science. At this stage of its development, the family systems view does not provide an internally coherent, predictive, or unifying theory about humans and their problems. Further, it tends to both undercontextualize and overcontextualize behavior, substitutes blaming the family for blaming the victim, reifies and anthropomorhizes the systems metaphor, dismisses such concepts as power and responsibility, and discourages research. As one theoretical and clinical perspective among many, however, it can be helpful and eye-opening.

Control Theory and Social Behavior in the Workplace

Recent theoretical statements by Lord and Hanges (1987) and by Carver and Scheier (1981) suggest that supervision in the workplace can be analyzed as a control system made up of supervisors and subordinates. Two experiments are described which raise doubts about this claim. Subjects were engaged as supervisors and asked to provide performance feedback to a subordinate. It was found that subjects did not respond to subordinate work performance in the straightforward way predicted by control theory, but instead responded based on analyses of the context-dependent meanings of that performance. Implications of these results for applying the control system metaphor to social behavior in the workplace more generally are discussed.

Systemic Waste and the Body Boundary in Pynchon's Fiction

We can understand the connections between the various forms of "waste" in Pynchon's fiction and understand his use of the human body as a metaphor for systems in general by considering the images of bodily waste and bodily integrity in his work. Images of prosthesis, ingestion, defecation, and other transitions of the "body boundary" in Pynchon's writing are not gratuitous, but powerful tools forcefully used to emphasize the pattern of cycles and the themes of death, system, and environment in his fiction. Once we begin to pay attention to Pynchon's frequent images of expulsion of all sorts, and to the symbolism of bodily waste, many obscure or repellent passages become thematically relevant. The image of the body and its boundary, and the concept of bodily waste become cogent metaphors for general systemic treatments of waste, and eventually for the meaning of life and death.

Control theory: A model of organisms

AbstractThe concepts of feedback and systems analysis are compatible with a control system model of human behavior. Control theory can contribute a model of the individual for use in larger models of social systems, in which more general feedback phenomena can be found. A review of the properties of control systems shows that they act to make their own input match internal standards or reference signals.Competent control systems create illusions of stimulus‐response causality. While stimulus‐response theory can approximate the relationship between disturbance and action, it is unable to predict the consequences of behavior. Control theory shows how consequences are maintained despite disturbances.A control theory view of individual human behavior is applicable in all sciences that deal with social systems—not as a metaphor for social control systems but as a description of the properties of the individuals who generate social phenomena.

Examining total Quality Management through systemic metaphor

Examining total Quality Management through systemic metaphor

AM/AG MODEL: A HIERARCHICAL SOCIAL SYSTEM METAPHOR FOR DISTRIBUTED PROBLEM SOLVING

This work explores a distributed problem solving (DPS) approach, namely the AM/AG (Amplification/Aggregation) model. The AM/AG model is a hierarchic social system metaphor for DPS based on Mintzberg’s model of organizations. At the core of the model are information flow mechanisms, namely, amplification and aggregation. Amplification is a process of decomposing a given task, called an agenda, into a set of subtasks with magnified degree of specificity and distributing them to multiple processing units downward in the hierarchy. Aggregation is a process of combining the results reported from multiple processing units into a unified view, called a resolution, and promoting the conclusion upward in the hierarchy. Amplification is discussed in detail. A set of generative rules is introduced. Each rule specifies a set of actions for transforming an input agenda into other forms with higher specificity. The proposed model can be used to account for the memory recall process which makes associations between vast amounts of related concepts, sorts out the combined results, and promotes the most plausible ones. An example of memory recall is used to illustrate the model.

A complexity architecture for information technologies: A three-year didactic experiment

One medium-term strategy for helping in the management of complexity is the introduction of a conceptual complexity component in the very centre of university curricula. In very few areas is the growth of complexity as evident as in the information technologies (ITs), the focus of the work presented in the current paper. We have therefore developed an integrated way of tackling the specific field of information technologies by means of an approach to complexity. The content of this paper describes the guidelines of our research effort, placing an emphasis on informatics. Concepts of complexity based on the system metaphor have been substantially drawn upon in this exercise and are thus presented in some detail. Also described is a didactic experiment conducted by the author and designed to provide a new and integrating approach to University curricula for future professionals. The students' “discovery” of complexity is the focal point of the experiment. The findings of this effort are encouraging and call for the continuation and expansion of this experiment.

The application of metaphor, analogy, and conceptual models in computer systems

People using computer systems naturally relate what they are experiencing to what they already know. This general cognitive process can be classified into metaphoric, analogical, and modelling processes. Metaphor, a term applied often to today's computer systems, is the process of representing the computer system with objects and events from a noncomputer domain, such as the popular desktop metaphor. Analogy is a comparison between objects or events that serve the same purpose but have different representations. Models are representations of the abstract conceptual structure of a computer system. This paper outlines the differences between these three processes and applies them to the computer domain. Implications for computer systems design are also discussed.

Intermediate health care in a British inner city: An exercise in multiprofessional systems design

Health care in England is divided into the acute- and primary-care sectors. In the inner city the primary-care sector suffers from a number of ills that would be relieved by the introduction of a form of health care intermediate to it and the acute sector. This paper illustrates how members of the Department of General Practice at the University of Liverpool set about exploring the problems of the inner city and its health-care provision, as a means of arriving at a preliminary design for an intermediate-care service provision. The design was to form the basis for negotiations with other interested parties over the introduction of intermediate care in the inner city. The approach adopted was based on the soft systems methodology of P. B. Checkland. However, a number of variations on the traditional soft systems methodology were introduced, not the least of which was the introduction of new systemic metaphor into the root definition and conceptual modeling stages.

A framework for designing adaptive DSS interfaces

In addition to customary problem domain knowledge, a decision support system could benefit from the accomodation of two other types of knowledge: user knowledge and self knowledge. Past DSS research has focused on domain knowledge in various guises including data, procedures, rules sets, text, forms, spreadsheets and so on. In introducing the two new knowledge system dimensions, we argue that they are crucial to thinking about what it means for a DSS to have adaptive, easy-to-use interfaces. Based on a human support system metaphor, the framework presented here is also an important step in the direction of designing, implementing and researching such interfaces.

Whale or Shark? A Description of State Policy Domains for Teacher Education

Tate reports the results of a four-state case study of policymaking for teacher education. State systems for governing teacher education, described as policy domains, have developed over the last fifteen years. The metaphor of the state system as a whale is used to encourage reflections about the past, present, and future of the politics of teacher educa tion.

Extending the Metaphor "System"

Virtually all systems-based work is dominated by the notion of "system" as a concept of an adaptive whole which may survive in a changing environment. Such unexamined givens should be challenged; it might be fruitful in practical interventions in real-world problems to widen the concept "system." The nature of the concept of the adaptive whole is examined, both in general and more specifically in "soft systems methodology" (SSM), the systemsbased approach to tackling ill-structured problems which has been developed in the 1970's and 1980's. A method for developing alternatives to the core systems metaphor is presented, and its practical use in real-world problem solving is illustrated. This is a promising enrichment of SSM.

ANALOGY AND METAPHOR AND SYSTEMS AND CYBERNETICS METHODOLOGY

Systems and cybernetic methodology have traditionally drawn upon the concepts of analogy and metaphor. These are, however, contentious on both philosophical and practical grounds. The work we present in this paper mostly aims to overcome the philosophical difficulties by uncovering the basic principles of analogic modeling and by showing how these can complement inductive and deductive reasoning. Analogy and metaphor are then shown to be complementary and can be considered to be on one spectrum, from creative metaphor to the more formal approach of analogy. Contention on practical grounds is allayed as the role of analogy and metaphor in systems and cybernetic methodology is outlined.

The evolution of mental metaphors in psychology: A 90-year retrospective.

It seems plausible that the conception of the mind has evolved over the first hundred years ofpsychology in America . In this research, we studied this evolution by tracing changes in the kinds of metaphors used by psychologists to describe mental phenomena. A corpus ofmetaphors from 1894 to the present was collected and examined . The corpus consisted ofall metaphors for mental phenomena used in the first issue ofPsychological Review in each decade, beginning with the inception ofthe journal in 1894 and continuing with 1905, 1915, and so on through 1975 . These nine issues yielded 265 mental metaphors, which were categorized ac- cording to the type of analogical domain from which the comparison was drawn . The chief finding was that the nature ofthe mental metaphors . changed over time . Spatial meta- phors and animate-being metaphors predominated in the early stages, then declined in favor of systems metaphors, often taken from mathematics and the physical sciences . A secondary finding was that the numbers of mental metaphors varied . Metaphors for mental phenomena were more prevalent in the early and late stages of the corpus than in the middle stages (1935 to 1955) . These patterns are interpreted in terms of conceptual evolution in psychologists' models of the mind . In this article we examine historical changes in the metaphors used by American psychologists to de- scribe mental processes . Our aim is to use changes in metaphoric language to trace changes in the models of the mind that psychologists have held . It is by now accepted that researchers bring to their field of study a theoretical framework-which may be more or less explicitly conscious-in terms of which they construe the phenomena they observe (Koestler, 1964) . Moreover, these frameworks change

An Aspect of Live Supervision: The Pathological Triangle

AbstractA model of live supervision is developed that asserts that when live supervision is ineffective in producing change in the trainee's behaviour and consequently in the family's problem behaviour, this can be the result of the formation of a pathological triangle in the therapeutic system, consisting of the family, the trainee and the supervisor. The pathological triangle, with its incongruent hierarchy, is seen as a defence against issues of attachment‐detachment in the supervisor and the trainee. The triangle formed in the therapeutic system is characterised by the same systemic metaphor as that presented by the family. Intervening in. and disrupting the triangle is seen as resolving issues of attachment‐detachment in the therapeutic members. The role of the live supervisor and the supervisor of supervision is discussed.

Concise natural language interaction (abstract only)

Advances in both hardware and software continue to make it possible to design user oriented systems more easily. Because we have not had a language for describing the user orientation of computer systems, a variety of interpersonal metaphors have been used to aid in the comparative evaluations of systems. Recent cultural history has shaped the semantics of computer systems. Out of the turbulent, liberal strains of the 1960s emerged the movement to humanize computer systems. During the self-centered backlash of the 1970s the term friendly became a computer household word. During the 1980s we need to grow beyond a concern for friendliness alone and build systems that are considerate.Consideration supercedes friendliness in at least three major ways, First, it goes beyond satisfaction by focusing upon attempts to help and assist others. Secondly, it requires that a person take the role of another and take the other's needs into account. Thirdly, to be considerate is to be courteous and, most importantly, respectful. In these respects, the metaphor of the considerate system points to the essence of user orientation wltbout sacrificing other critical system features such as productivity. In fact, truly considerate systems will facilitate productivity because of improved communication clarity, greater tolerance for user errors and idiosyncrasies, and increased availability of options, i.e., user-directed socio-computer interaction.Designing and developing considerate systems is not easy and requires considerable time and effort. Representative users must he involved in the selection of system features and in the process (formative) evaluation as well as the outcome (summative) evaluation. Consequently, there is a very necessary and essential role for the social scientist in the development of present day socio-computer systems.

Natural and Social System Metaphors for Distributed Problem Solving: Introduction to the Issue

Naturally occurring information systems provide a number of useful metaphors for distributed problem solving. An introduction to some aspects of these metaphors is given which simultaneously serves as a guest editorial for a special issue devoted to the topic. The ubiquity of a distributed mode of computation in information processing in natural phenomena in general and in human societies in particular is observed and related to the evolutionary and complexity-reducing advantages of this mode. The forms of communication media available to coordinate the problem solving activities of the individual processors are examined. Some general remarks are made on how problem solving is distributed and coordinated in some human organizations, and the potential usefulness of the society of specialists notion in explicating cognitive activity is pointed out. Along the way, the contents of the papers in the special issue are considered in relation to various points raised in the discussion.

Dimensions of Semiotic Space in Narrative

The observation and interpretation of spatial relationships in narrative texts is a significant recurrent theme in recent semiotics. Binary oppositions such as high/low, near/far, enclosed/open have been interpreted as systematic textual realizations of fundamental categories of mythic thought by Levi-Strauss, Toporov and Ivanov, of moral or cultural codes by Toporov and Lotman, and in terms of psycho-analytic oppositions by many post-Freudians. Lotman and Barthes, among others, have attempted to relate spatial oppositions in literary narrative to the dynamics of plot and point of view or the delineation of character. One semiotic system, relations, has been regarded as a kind of metaphor for other semiotic systems in a text. A purely binary opposition, however, while giving us direct and valuable insights into indicial relations in a narrative, especially in terms of myths, rites and moral values, may blur our perception of other aspects of semiotic space, for example, the extent to which it may have no spatial correlates at all, and the extent to which its dimensions are measurable, i.e., perceived in our reading as themselves consisting of graded relationships. Our title is a pun on both the key words: under we do include spatial relations as perhaps one of the most clearly structured and recognizable dimensions of meaning in a text - a semiotic system that models the world of the narrative. But we also use in its more general sense as used by mathematicians (Lotman reminds us in passing of the concepts chromatic space in optics and phase space as used by electrical engineers, but he does not look more closely at the implications of this analogy [Lotman, 1968, 1970]). Under dimension we include both the notion of cross-section, assuming that the art work can be cut at many different levels and angles and that many of

Selection from visual persistence by perceptual groups and category membership.

Following Sperling, the nature of the representation of visual information during visual persistence has been investigated by comparing partial-report (PR) and whole-report (WR) estimates of available information. A PR superiority is considered evidence for the representation of the cued stimulus dimension in visual persistence. In general, PR cues based on a physical characteristic produce a PR superiority, but PR cues based on a category distinction give no higher estimates of available information than is obtained with WR. These findings have been used to support an interpretation of visual persistence based upon a storage system metaphor (e.g., iconic memory), whereby a critical characteristic of the stored information is its "literal" precategorical nature. The present experiments explored whether there are reasonable alternative explanations for the fact that only physical PR cues typical produced a PR superiority. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrate that the effectiveness of physical PR cues depends upon the "goodness' of the perceptual groups defined by the cued dimension. Perceptual grouping within multi-letter displays was varied according to the principles of proximity (Exp. 1) and similarity (Exp. 2), and the results showed greater PR superiorities when the demand characteristics of the cues were compatible with the implied perceptual groups in the displays. Experiments 3 and 4 establish that PR cues based upon a category distinction (letter-digit) produce a PR superiority when both cue onset latency and cue uncertainty are equated across PR and WR conditions. Circular alphanumeric displays were used, and category PR cues and WR cues were either presented in separate trial blocks (Exp. 3) or intermixed at two possible cue delays relative to display onset (-1000 msec or 0 msec). A PR superiority was found in all conditions. In addition, Experiment 5 shows that the magnitude of this category PR superiority decreased systematically with increases in cue delay (-900 msec, -300 msec, +300 msec, and +900 msec), and in Experiment 6, it was found that the PR superiorities for both physical and category cues decrease at comparable rates with increased cue delay. Since perceptual grouping influences the effectiveness of physical PR cues and category PR cues produce a PR superiority under appropriate conditions, the results question the validity of interpretions of visual persistence that imply the existence of a literal, precategorical storage system. It is suggested that a multichannel view of the visual system provides a more adquate theoretical conceptualization of visual persistence.