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This paper describes an experiment in which 30 students, classified according to high and low analytical performance, were given a reading and text production test to determine their sensibility to the structure of an Icelandic saga. This material was used because of its extreme simplicity on the textual surface level, a property suited for studying structure as something beyond the surface. The hypothesis tested is whether the structure mediated though the produced texts pertains to a descriptive dimension, implying analytic sensibility or to a reflective dimension, indicating synthetic sensibility. Hence, the aim of the experiment was to demonstrate the extent to which a certain learning strategy is governing the pick-up and production of a particular structure. Since synthesis is connected with structure, it implies that synthesis can only be studied through the structure of text production. In advancing the bio-kinetic hypothesis that the complexity and nonlinear dynamics of a produced discourse can be approached on the basis of the Agent-action-Objective (AaO) paradigm, it is shown that the derived [AaO] units rotate and AaO-governed rotations are including A- and O- functions that can be imaged in real time. On the basis of two discourses concerning the Icelandic saga, it is demonstrated that a system of [AaO] units has the capacity to keep track of rotations and to assemble textual elements that fit into the structure of a particular text. Discourse (A) has been shown to produce a state space in which the terminus, associated with the global state attractor, communicates an inevitable course of events, while the other (B) communicates boldness as final outcome. Thus, the results of the experiment make evident that significant differences in emergent consciousness are crucially dependent on structural sensibility and the developed learning strategies. (Contains 10 figures and 15 references.) (SLD)

This article presents the third study of a series that has been designed to manifest consciousness and to measure developed competence. The emphasis of the main hypothesis of this experiment has been put on the students ability to adapt to the main idea of a given story and to express his comprehension verbally. The way the two students of the previous two experiments have been able to accomplish the experimental task is reflected in the state attractors of the produced fitness landscapes. The student who has continued to follow the analytic-descriptive approach has focused on the conditions of that part of the study that relates to a critic of empiricism. Since it has been shown that the process of naming the resulting state attractors provides a sound theoretical basis, it can be concluded that the student has not been conscious of this purpose and consequently has been unable to abstract the criticism of empiricism. In contrast, the other student has continued to follow the synthetic-reflective approach. The produced narrative has made it evident that this student has been able to abstract the criticism of idealism. It follows that the proper outcome is "rationalism," which is validating that the degree of developed competence can be approached in a direct and obvious manner. (Author/SLD)

This paper presents the second study in a series that has been designed to manifest the emergence of consciousness and to measure developed competence. Its major aim has been to demonstrate that an invariant formulation of the Agent-action-Objective model and an analysis of it's a-O kinematics have the capacity to reproduce contour similarity over time. Within the studied evolutionary-developmental context, the biokinetics of the discovered AaO-mechanism has governed the synthesizing of information. Through the design of a single-subject experiment, it has been possible to demonstrate individual variations in growth as changes in complexity. When the two participating students are compared, obvious differences in their perspectives and consequently in their attractor spaces become apparent. Based on coordinated structural invariance, it has been possible to show that the convoluted spaces of the student who has followed the analytic-descriptive approach is concerned with the concrete level of the tested story. On the other hand, the student who is following a synthetic-reflective strategy seems to concentrate mainly on the symbolic level of the tested materials. Thus, from a developmental point of view, it has been possible to demonstrate that the AaO-mechanism is tracing embodied growth, which becomes manifest in the differences of the students' ability to adapt to the main idea of the given story. (Contains 8 figures and 14 references.) (Author/SLD)

The Agent-action-Objective (AaO) axiom and the theory of rotational dynamics constitute the frame of reference for the study of the metaphor as instrument for the direct perception of events. The major hypothesis of this frame of reference refers to the event structure embedded in the ground of a metaphor. Since the ground is implicit in the linguistic manifestation, an invariant representation of textual movement patterns is assumed to capture the event structure. Experimentally, it is demonstrated that an event is perceivable only through structure. To capture the event means to conserve its structure through informational invariants. As a result, it is demonstrated that the functional symmetry of a metaphor can be established in the form of state attractors evolving in attractor spaces. (Contains 3 figures and 34 references.) (Author/SLD)

This paper advances the bio-kinetic hypothesis that the Agent-action-Objective (AaO) axiom constitutes the only valid foundation for a behavioral expression of the informational dimensions contained in natural language. Based on the bookkeeping capacity of the discovered AaO mechanism, it is shown that this mechanism can capture emergent (AaO) units and track their growth in complexity. Through individual variations in the growth of the components as well as the variations in nesting, it is demonstrated that structural stability and textual morphogenesis generates corresponding informational invariants. Furthermore, on the basis of the translation function, it is shown that a sequential translation of an original text to Swedish and from Swedish to Italian produces the condition for an effective control of interplay between textual agents (A) and textual objectives (O) within a system of language specific coordinates. Based on coordinated structural invariants, it is shown that convoluted structures are pointing toward the presence of a biologically determined interplay between a produced perspective and stated objectives. (Contains 10 figures and 13 references.) (Author/SLD)

This paper is a direct continuation of the experimental evaluation of the basic space-hypothesis explored in Real Time Imaging of the Rotation Mechanism Producing Interview-based Language Spaces. This project has required that different pars, the spaces of the A- and O-domains, be related and contrasted. In this paper the focus is on the rotation-translation hypothesis. This paper demonstrates that the oscillations in pattern dynamics produce perspective transformations of motifs and themes. Motifs are assumed to carry intentional cues and to locate structurally the observers thematic orientation. At the kinematic level, this condition has made it possible to extract different perspective orientations. It is demonstrated that the asymptotic behavior of evolving motifs provides the basis for a thermodynamic description of an original Swedish sample text and to compare the description with the dynamics induced through its translation into English. As a result, it is shown that the original and its translation share highly similar informational invariants. This means that their attractor spaces are structurally alike. With reference to the general recognition problems, the capacity to induce dynamics in another system and to demonstrate their similitude has meaning and important implications for further analyses and system synthesis. (Contains 3 tables, 5 figures, and 22 references.) (Author/SLD)

This paper presents the geometric foundation and quantification of Agent-action-Objective (AaO) kinematics. The meaningfulness of studying the flows in verbal expressions through splitting and splicing the strings in a verbal flow related to the fact that free parameters are not needed since it is not required that the presented methodological development fits one or another empirical context. The major aim is to make evident that natural language employs its own intrinsic system of coordinates. These coordinate systems are transforming kinetic energy into discoverable verbal flows. It is demonstrated that language must be conceived of as a natural system that becomes structured through rhythmic driving forces. The presented results give weight to the hypothesis that rotational dynamics is basic to the effects that selective textual movement patterns have on the evolution of texture; i.e., a text surface. Since the experimental procedure focused on the manipulation of text translation, asymmetries, and phrase translation, it has been possible to show that translators meet the same functional requirements in different ways, but are producing multiple stable trajectories of similar kinds. The studied text example, with English and Swedish translations, shows that the dynamics induced through translations produce a deeply ingrained commonalty. Relative phase stability in the developing strands has revealed that the mechanism is generating symmetries. Since the symmetries are the consequence of processing, apparent contour similarity has important theoretical implications. (Contains 8 figures, 1 table, and 22 references.) (SLD)

No one has ever been able to look into the language space, nor has anyone been able to measure the phenomenon of consciousness without the interference of an observer. This article changes the situation, showing that from now on it is possible to produce measures of consciousness without the presence of classical observation devices. The observation problem can be bypassed since the "observer" is part of the "observed." This means that the phenomenon is describing itself. Since there is no longer any need for mirroring the state of consciousness by the state of an apparatus, the classical problem of an observation on the apparatus has disappeared. It is shown in this paper that the measurement situation has been changed fundamentally. A full description is attainable through the establishment of the geometrical shapes of involuted textual flows. In a simulation experiment, the captions of the Visual Cliffs experiment (E. Gibson and R. Walk, 1960) were explored. The hypothesis of this experiment was that a subtle interplay between the oscillation of textual strings and the winding of work cycles creates the language space. The significance of the analysis of the language space is in the determination of the phase transitions involved on the kinetic level and in the determination of the flow morphology of the text at different occasions of change. (Contains 11 references.) (SLD)

A simulation experiment demonstrated that the perceptual sensitivity of Swedish and Danish students at upper secondary school level varies systematically concerning the basic conditions for "personal growth." An attempt is made to constrain this concept contextually, in such a way that it can be described behaviorally. It is made evident that Swedish students are certain that only a society founded on the principles of behavior modification can provide the conditions for their personal growth. In contrast, Danish students have demonstrated a higher degree of differential sensitivity to contextual variations. Consequently, for them, a society that is building on behavioristic principles accommodates significantly different conditions for personal growth compared to a society building on process principles. Moreover, all three prototypical societies are discerned to have significantly fewer favorable conditions for the development of Life Quality (LQ) compared to the conditions of the Danish society. However, with respect to its surface conditions, the latter is determined to be highly similar to the social texture of the prototypical society which is obeying the principles of the process paradigm. Contains 7 tables of data and 30 references. (Author/BT)

The purpose of this paper is to explain how the Swedish citizen has developed his (or her) judgment concerning quality of life, attributable to real and simulated civilizations. It builds on a previous research report (B. Bierschenk, 1997) about three model societies that have been studied with the assumptions that: (1) competition implies selection; (2) selection implies independence; and (3) independence implies success. In this article it is shown that "certainty in preferential judgment" (judgment of life quality) constitutes a behavioral expression of survival competence. With a focus on the demonstrative definition of competence as development at the edge of competition and success, the study has generated two topographically derived scales. One is a time scale (T1) that is local and measures ecological variation. The other is a time scale (T2) that is global and measures evolution. (Contains 2 tables, 12 figures, and 8 references.) (Author/SLD)

This study, which includes data collected over a 15 year period, examines to what degree Swedish citizens' judgment concerning life quality is attributed to perceptions of real or simulated models of civilization. Subjects selected for the research study included Swedish male and female teachers, and doctoral students in business administration. The research instrument used required subjects to watch a video series that presented a vision of the U.S. society during the 1970s. The subjects were then asked to respond to questions regarding how they imagine themselves living in that society. Responses were expected to reflect initial assumptions that (1) competition implies selection; (2) selection implies independence; and (3) independence implies success. The subjects' notions of himself or herself as competent and successful in the simulated situation appears to be at stake. Subjects who emerge from "certainty in preferential judgment" concerning the possibility to integrate are seen as demonstrating a fundamental psychological expression of competence. Subjects' competence is judged in terms of perceived appropriateness in ability to meet the demands of certain environments. Findings suggest that Swedish citizens imagine potential life quality within simulated society in terms relative to self-judgments regarding their own competence or success in real-life situations. (Contains 23 references.) (MM)

Classical research operations in the cognitive sciences concern categorizations as well as classifications, and have been strongly influenced by nomological approaches. As a consequence, information processing has been explained with reference to syntactic-semantic models. Because of an absence of structural implications, personal interpretations have had great impact on the presentation of results of relevance to the cognitive sciences. In contrast, this article deals with the concept of "process" and an approach that takes its departure from text-building behavior and the oscillations of this behavior. The task of process is to give expression to textual movements and the dynamics of movements. With respect to this investigation, which analyzes text produced in an interview with an official of a municipality, quantitative transformations of scale as well as frame of reference have made it evident that a nonmechanical coupling of intention and orientation captures the perspective underlying a verbal flow without the mediation of organizational processes. The analysis reveals that verbal flows are structuring the textual system directly by producing their own internal constraints. Morphological profiles of speech patterns have been produced. It is characteristic of these profiles that they manifest time-dependent system states and state attractors. These are the results of an interplay of perspective and objective. The discovery of recursive phase singularities constitutes a significant discernment of the involved physical mechanism. (Contains 1 table, 12 figures, and 11 references.) (Author/SLD)

The consciousness of dizygotic twins in their communication of actions and events as seen in the visual cliff pictures published by E. J. Gibson and R. D. Walk (1960) was studied in Sweden. In the process of communication, many different state spaces are generated. The methodology demonstrates that ecological and biophysical properties of language produce unique morphological profiles. Four pairs of twins were exposed to these pictures in a classroom setting, and the text they built in response to the pictures was studied. The focus is on one pair of dizygotic twins between 16 and 17 years of age. At the kinetic level, stable relationships are identified among naturally occurring periods, mass, and length of text. The relating invariants are demonstrated through a multivariate statistical strategy involving an analysis of variance, an indexing of the size of effects, and a regression analysis. At the kinematic level, adiabatic trajectories are apparent, for which underlying state spaces and interrelated metrics are shown to be dependent on the particular text producer. It is made evident that a certain degree of consciousness is carried by a particular kind of concepts and conceptual relations. Finally, it is concluded that perceiving a phenomenon differs not only in degree but in kind from conceiving its consequences. Results also support the use of the Scanator methodology developed by B. Bierschenk as a way to keep track of unitizing activities. An appendix presents the original Swedish text produced by the four subjects. (Contains 18 figures, 7 tables, and 26 references.) (SLD)

A new approach to the study of text building behavior is possible through the application of Scanator. This paper consists of a demonstration of some of its fundamental functions. These are suitable in a study of text building. The basic concepts, expressed through an analysis of a small part of an interview text, derive from a thermodynamic treatment of text building. In a first phase, text material is transposed and arranged for automatic processing. Constituent of this phase are five components. A second phase is associated with joining and linking processes. At the kinetic level they provide for the book-keeping of reversible and irreversible flows. Through channelling of textual elements, supplementary operations fill out all places where textual material is lacking. The second phase terminates when all involved processes have reached their steady states. Strings of graphemes give rise to larger functional units through partial qualifications. Results demonstrate how points relate at various distances, pressures, and forces; and that points of different kind are separable when the distance measures reach their critical limit. At this limit, a third phase comes into existence. Processing during this phase concerns the assembling of point into natural groups and the naming of these groups. That verbal flow processes can be specified at the kinetic level suggests that point attractors can be named. When the curvatures of point attractors lean toward a virtual midpoint it becomes possible to demonstrate their state attractor. Results show that a state attractor is the proper constraint of its underlying kinetic processes. Contains 11 references, and 11 tables and 8 figures of data. (Author/RS)

Natural systems are self-organizing and stratify according to the angular articulation of their movements. In particular, movement is relative to the levels that define its behavior space. As natural phenomenon, text production is self-referential, In generating information, the intention of the producer of a text becomes specified. Specifying of intention is dependent on phase and phase transitions. In agreement with realized phase values, spanning over 360 degrees, co-ordination and cooperation among parts is of significance. Joints and links are channelling textual elements. A mapping procedure is locating the discontinuities by keeping track of changes, flows, and rhythms. This is a more elastic and fluid strategy, compared to former approaches. The discontinuities are used in the description of states and state changes across the kinetic and kinematic levels of verbal flow fields. It is shown that novel properties have emerged along the adiabatic paths of the investigated text. This means that attractors of points and attractors of states have manifested informational structures that are more elaborated than the previous studies could show. Contains 15 references and 10 figures of data; an appendix contains a table of data. (Author/RS)

Scanator is an extremely valuable tool in the functional analysis of qualitative stability in text building behavior during writing. Scanator also allows for a detailed investigation of subtle changes emerging in the structural relations of emergent novelties. This study focused on the extension of the application of Scanator to one pair of dizygotic (DZ) twins. Specifically, the study examined whether DZ twins differ in their mental structures as they construct text. The test material consisted of a series of pictures in which a baby is navigating a visual cliff--a sheet of glass between the child and its mother. Subjects wrote a 5-page essay in Swedish, rewrote the essay, constructed an abstract of the essay, then wrote the essay in English. The Scanator results did not indicate any systematic differences. A powerful effect was found in the cohesion of the produced verbal flows, but no such effect was evident in the elasticity of text volume flows. Contains 13 references. (Author/MDK)

A method for the assessment of competence in language is suggested that allows a new approach to the study of the sources and conditions of competence development. The method builds on the functional analysis of text building behavior, making use of the discontinuities in produced text as the only reliable observations from a scientific point of view. The method is known as Perspective Text Analysis. It characterizes the mechanism that has been discovered to govern text production and to foster an understanding of the actual processes of movement in language. The functional analysis of qualitative stability in text building behavior incorporates the double aspect of time into the approach, partly through an algorithm that takes care of the dynamics in text building behavior, and partly through the sequencing in text production that secures its evolutionary aspect. Aspects of competence are presented concerning five different areas. By means of global state attractors resulting from the perspective of anticipated consequences, mental determinants are presented. On the basis of established temporal morphologies, the kinds of determinants that constrain one's thinking under various experimental conditions are shown. Five tables illustrate concepts under discussion. (Contains 35 references.) (SLD)

Because computer-oriented researchers apply cognitive notions such as meaning, symbol and understanding, or concept, cognition and knowledge, it has become mandatory to inquire into the traditional explanatory models of science, including behaviourism. The article outlines the steering and control mechanism that has governed a new outlook in which subjective mental states become functionally interactive and essential for a full explanation of conscious behaviour. The presented model has governed a comprehensive exploration into Cognitive Science. Its purpose was to digest the viewpoints of "hard" science and to compare the transformation with the value-assumption underlying many of the approaches favoured by behavioural scientists. Advanced methods have been developed. For this reason, they have been analysed with respect to changes in both intention and orientation. These processes are highly dependent on the relations between natural language expressions and their underlying mentality. It is demonstrated that the frequently occurring non-additive effects of cognitive functions as design variables necessitate a research effort that concentrates on the instrumental functions of natural language. Each of the identified functions is studied as variable on the basis of a recurrent two-by-two factorial design. The approach stresses the fact that a variable in one developmental phase is treated as independent variable, whereas its re-appearance in the succeeding phase results in its treatment as dependent variable. The study of co-variation and interaction of the variables seems to be the only way to shed light on the confounded discussion of the traditional science-value dichotomy in Cognitive Science. The new methodological approach consists of a calculus that preserves responsibility as its constituent component. The calculus has progressively been introduced during the development of the presented double helical architecture, which is the result of an unfolding of the AaO-formula into a cognitive system. Seven figures illustrate the discussion. (Contains 82 references.) (Author)

In contrast to the mass-related verbal flow description given in part I, this report focuses on the cooperative interaction of textual agents and objectives in the production of information flows. Perspective Text Analysis (PTA) is used with the purpose of establishing their physical and functional significance in a non-mass based description of text building behavior. The most important feature of part II is the double aspect of the methodological approach to text building. One aspect of text building is an elaboration of Gibson's methodology into the study of a language-specific pickup of ecological invariants, exploring the abstract projections of ecological optics onto language spaces and the way in which projected optical flow fields constrain the coupling of perception and action, i.e. locomotor activities. The other refers to physical conditions as provided by the famous Visual Cliff experiments and their theoretical significance in an explanation of the established temporal morphologies. These have been represented within a topological space. This space is conceived of as a collection of points that are connected by affinity relations determining the As and Os of the AaO schema. It is shown that each point can be represented by a different number, and that the concentration of these points in the topological space ultimately becomes helical. It is also demonstrated that self-references and self-organization have significance for the embedding of the perceived topological properties of the experimental environment into text. The results of the analysis show that the ensemble of texts macroscopically is dominated by highly similar flow-field properties. Three figures, one table. An attachment contains cluster analyses. (Contains 15 references, 3 tables, and 1 figure.) (Author)

The degree of consciousness of one's own familiar surroundings by high and low achieving students of a technical gymnasium in Malmo (Sweden) was studied through essays written about Sweden as a place to live. Focus was on testing the proposition that an individual's ability to express cognitive integration of experience in covariation with personal knowledge is reflected through natural language, based on the assumption that selective attention and schematic processing are directly built into the process of perception. Essays of 4 students were chosen from 85 submitted. Using these four subjects as coordinate systems and bio-psycho-physical frames of reference, it was demonstrated that the order of performance can be upheld over levels of analysis. The way in which transformations of aggregates of joint textual element complexes become fashioned into single functional unities was also shown. On the basis of these unities, absolute termini (limits) are established and named. These termini provide for the structural connections that specify the informational invariants of one's own referential reality. These invariants also serve as keys to consciousness in the Kantian sense (intuition), and thus give a precise phenomenological description of reality through systemic deduction. (SLD)

Two kinds of perspectives governing the provision and preservation of knowledge, a universal and an ecological perspective, are discussed in this paper. In the first case, scientific observations are represented through a semantic interpretation of facts. This is illustrated with a series of experiments on semantic feature perception in the recall of pictures described by descriptor terms. In the second case, scientific observations are conceived as part of a constitutive context. Consequently, the researcher's development toward structurization and his use of precise concepts and well-defined conceptual relations requires an orientation toward the cooperative dimension of the context. This is illustrated by an ecologically oriented study of an information system that measures intentionality and orientation by means of an Agent-action-Objective (AaO) formula. Within the AaO formula a dependency between the cooperatively operating and interacting components creates the absolute terms (i.e., the invariants); these, in turn, serve as a point of departure for information synthesis. It is demonstrated that scientific reporting has the intermediary function between context and knowledge representation. Intentionality and orientation are fundamental in the development of concepts and conceptual relations. (21 references) (Author/DB)

Because the scientific treatment of the concept of consciousness has been multifaceted, there have been several different approaches to research concerning consciousness. This article gives an introductory account of the research on consciousness. The main hypothesis advanced is based on the premise that consciousness emerges from the cooperative interaction of multiple agents and agencies within naturally produced text. Through Perspective Text Analysis, it is demonstrated that the Kantian schema provides the necessary foundation for making explicit the teleonomic component governing natural language production. As a consequence, the concept of text is redefined so that the textual transformation and recursive restructuring reach their meaning in relation to the concepts of textual dynamics and linkages. Its configurational architecture is demonstrated on the basis of the (AaO) formula. As a result, the entirety of structural relations evolves as a double helical structure. Analysis within the framework of differential topology demonstrates the necessity of cooperating perspective and objective structures in establishing perspective and objective invariance. Five figures illustrate the discussion. A 23-item list of references is included. (Author/SLD)

In this study, the Kantian schema has been applied to natural language expression. The novelty of the approach concerns the way in which the Kantian schema interrelates the analytic with the synthetic mode in the construction of the presented formalism. The main thesis is based on the premise that the synthetic, in contrast to the analytic, proposition plays the central role in the measurement and representation of consciousness. It is assumed that the discontinuities in natural language production are the only reliable observations and that there is at present no other way in which these observations can be formalized. Despite the enormous number of textual elements and variations, it has been possible to demonstrate perspective and objective structures empirically as the result of a series of non-deterministic bifurcations of a dynamic vector field within euclidean space. By contrasting the captions to the picture series of the original "visual cliff" experiments with a narration produced in an experiment with a single subject, it was possible to show that the formalism can deal with alternative descriptions of the same system (experimental arrangement). On the basis of the given theoretical outline, a totally new comprehension of "text" and the underlying theoretical concepts related to the ecological approach to visual perception has emerged. Five figures illustrate the discussion. There is a 41-item list of references. (Author/SLD)

Implicit figuration and subjective interpretation make up the conventional basis of the classical discussion of the comprehensiveness and aesthetic quality of the metaphor. Its function and use in social science research is illustrated as a background to a radically different methodological approach. By means of a Perspective Text Analysis, it is demonstrated that metaphor has to be reconceived as the Re-naming Instrument. The hypothesis tested is that the metaphor carries ecological information. Results of the analysis show that the metaphor has to be treated as a self-contained verbal expression of affordance. By naming the affordance (i.e., what object and events in the environment offer), events of a certain kind are brought into perspective. One table illustrates algorithmic processing of a metaphoric sentence. A 24-item list of references is included. (Author/SLD)

An ecological approach to a psychological study of language is presented in this paper. Such an approach is based on the understanding that the process of perceiving an object or event is based neither in images or pictures nor in verbal or symbolic structures. In order for objects and events to become knowable, higher order cognitive processes must occur because these processes capture crucial qualities of structure and form. In light of the presupposed relationship between function and form, a computer simulation of neurotic behavior is critiqued. An 18-item list of references is included. (DB)

The psychological concept of consciousness is examined in this article. It is argued that the intentionality of an individual's behavior is the key to the measurement and representation of his consciousness. The experiment examined concerns groups of students of business administration and civil engineering as well as professional economists, and their responses to models of future society. Topological structures are formulated based on the groups' responses in terms of various aspects of consciousness as it is here defined. Distinctive aspects characterize the groups such that they can be ordered on a scale from non-consciousness to consciousness. Increasing consciousness implies increasing conceptual autonomy in the respective group's cooperation with its environment, and consequently, also an increase in its chance to survive in competition. A 31-item list of references is included. (DB)

Previous cognitive science research demonstrates how the Agent-action-Objective (AaO) paradigm controls the cognitive processes of differentiation and integration. The present discussion advances the process to the fourth of five phases. Of the four dependent variables emerging at this stage, two are discussed: zero processing and variations in form. A short introduction provides some of the basics governing the process. Discussion of the variables begins with some arguments put forward in cognitive science. In agreement with general conviction, symbol processing results in strings of symbols or sentences on which operations such as addition, deletion, and insertion can be performed according to formally defined rules. By propositional knowledge, statements about the world, and by truth conditions, meaning of symbolic expression is defined. However, meaning (semantics) is not bound to a linguistic context of interpretation. Meaning denotes the knowledge system underlying various approaches to natural language processing. A system's semantics represents the constructor's world view, but also a theory of how it is organized to enable disambiguation of strings of symbols. Consequently, the conceptual base is constructed within formally different boundaries compared to the linguistic base, and the semantic principle cuts across the linguistic/non-linguistic dimension. Implications of this approach to semantic interpretation are discussed. (Author/MSE)

Topological and algebraic scales were compared in the representation of the concept of human worth in behavioral-semantic terms. In a first experiment, seven doctoral students of Business Administration in Sweden explored the notion of worth using definitions from at least 10 dictionaries as the intentional-semantic content. Each subject served as experiencer, observer, and recorder in grouping entries by content. On the basis of the differentiations presented and names proposed for each of the groupings, the prototypical character of the groupings were summarized using the following descriptive names: (1) eigenvalue; (2) reputation; (3) reliability; (4) impartiality; (5) rank; (6) significance; and (7) status. The structural connections were represented topographically. In a second experiment, 180 Swedish high school students, college students, and adult professionals were asked to make preferential judgments about the intentional-semantic content of 50 statements about worth prepared by the subjects in the first experiment. A statistical analysis of choice alternatives then established an algebraic scale. Factor analysis led to the conclusion that the structure of the investigated concept was qualitatively invariant. The topological scale was preferred because it gave a synthetic representation of the underlying structure, while the algebraic scale only gave an analytic representation of details. (SLD)

This study on self-confrontation in teacher training presents the students' repeated assessments of subject-object relations both during the experiment and six weeks and two years after the experiment. For the experiment the student teachers were confronted with their own video-recorded micro-lessons; identification experiences and self-evaluation were examined for differences in level. The assessments made by the student teachers with an assessment and evaluation schedule were examined both for differences in level and for structural relations and similarities. One part of the self-confrontation experiment consisted of assessment of the video-recorded material by education experts. The experts' assessments were used in studying whether and to what extent the teacher training had firstly, influenced the student teachers assessments in relation to those made by the experts, and secondly, led to larger structural relations or similarities between the student teachers' and the experts' assessments of the video-recorded material. Finally, a study was also made of the student teachers' repeated rankings of a number of alternative tutors. (Author)

Empirical information is presented on how researchers at Swedish institutes of education perceive, structure, and define educational and psychological problems. The collection, evaluation, and presentation of the results of the study were made on the basis of system theoretic assumptions in that the description and analysis of the initial phase of the research process was made from a micro-ecological perspective. This orientation focuses on the analysis of the constraints that influence the researcher's possibilities for action, and permits the application of a psychological model that emphasizes the researcher's possibilities for action. The model includes the following components: (1) the researcher's motivation, (2) the researcher's perception of problems (i.e. the generation of ideas, norms, and values), (3) the researcher's choice, transformation and structuring of problems, and the generation of hypotheses, (4) the researcher's choice of strategies concerning the search for information, the design and implementation of research plans, (5) the researcher's choice of methods and techniques for information and documentation of research results, design of investigations, collection and processing of data, (6) the researcher's frame of reference (i.e. the extent to which he or she identifies with a particular discipline) and (7) the formal and informal organizations within which researchers work. (EVH)

A psycho-ecological model is used as the basis for a simulation of interactive behavior strategies. The basic unit is an event, and each event has been recorded on closed circuit television videotape. The three basic paradigms of behavioral science--association, structure, and process--are used to anchor the simulations. The empirical foundation for each paradigm is described, as well as the simulator as an objective and reliable instrument. Exploratory evaluations of adaptive behavior simulation suggest that the main influence on development of behavior strategies has been the association paradigm. A brief list of references is attached. (Author/BK)

The problem investigated in this study was formulated against a background of the theory of affordance as it was tested with the famous "Visual Cliff" experiment. The present study is based on the assumption that perceivers can detect transformational as well as structural invariants not only in the context of the classical "Visual Cliff" experiments but also when their basic assumptions are transformed into the social realm. On the hypothesis that structural invariants can be defined as an invariant combination of variables of significance for the perception of social structure, a series of three factor analytic studies was conducted with a sample of 611 subjects. The first study involved 214 inservice teachers and 57 high school students in Sweden; the second study involved 180 residents of the Lund-Malmo area of southern Sweden; and the third study involved 160 university and college students in Sweden. The three studies were used to: (1) reduce an initial data set in the empirical approach to the Gibsonian concept of affordance; (2) extend the search for a two-component structure; and (3) confirm the existence of invariance in the affordance structure. Despite different sets of variables, different sample subjects, and a time interval of 7 years, it was possible to infer the existence of two ecological components defining the transformed "Visual Cliff". The first specifies the nature of change (the development of worth), while the second specifies the structure that undergoes change (the visibility of developed worth). (Author/TJH)

A study investigated some of the ways in which phenomena are perceived and translated into speech, especially in the assignment of agents in a given situation. Subjects were 16 adults with infant children. The adults were shown the Visual Cliff series of pictures of an infant crawling to its mother across a glass sheet covering an open space with the appearance of varying depth, and asked to describe the pictures for someone who had not seen them and to state which of five areas of life (practical, aesthetic-moral, social, technical-physical, and care) concerned them most. The experiment was conducted in connection with a meeting giving parents information about guarding children against accidents. It was found that the subjects' stated concerns correlated with different perceptual approaches as illustrated by their observations, descriptions, and relations of environmental features. (MSE)

Understanding is discussed with reference to an agent-action-objective model. The formalism developed controls the processes of differentiation and integration underlying understanding. The starting point is a culturally agreed-upon expectancy or prescription that defines a particular form of understanding. Central to an investigation of how scientists model understanding is how they conceive symbols. The collective cognitive imperative in the scientific community states that symbols are abstract codes whose definitions are wholly arbitrary and, hence, can only be understood by those who have a common outlook. Scientists working with the development of computer technology, especially within the field of artificial intelligence, have repeatedly pointed out that they have constructed models of understanding the natural language of significance for cognition-oriented research. Therefore, focus is on classical models. It appears that self-reference is an important constituent component in any model or theory of understanding. (TJH)

Modern behavioral research focuses on the possibility of a direct measurement of value preferences, which are conceived as important causal variables of behavior. A method and procedure for the measurement and representation of human value factors is presented. The thesis was studied that valuation results from an active inquiring agent whose cognition rests on the extraction and abstraction of invariants. The mental processes of 35 randomly selected workers (mechanics) from Sweden, England, West Germany, Italy, and the United States were studied via Perspective Text Analysis (an ecologically oriented theory of information synthesis). Seven subjects were chosen from each country. Unrestricted verbal responses of the subjects to three open-ended questions concerning information management and utilization were analyzed. The subjects' mental processes were measured in accordance with an axiological approach. The outcome of the valuation was formulated into sequential flowcharts. The results show great variations in the pattern of displayed valuations among the five cultures. Each pattern is characterized by a distinctive value factor (pessimism, criticism, positivism, optimism, and individualism). (TJH)

This third of three articles on the ways in which people formulate their observations presents an analysis of the perspective or attitude dominating the discourse of an interview. The analysis is conducted according to a paradigm that views the speaker as the controller of discourse perspective. The relationships found in the analysis are represented three-dimensionally. The three-dimensional schema illustrates the mechanisms by which small variations in syntax are reflected in small variations in cognitive movement along the dimensions. (MSE)

The second of three articles on the ways in which people formulate their observations, this paper begins with a discussion of the assumptions underlying analytical and class-based models of cognition. The analytical approach to the measurement of cognition is found to be inappropriate because human cognition, and consequently language processing is characterized by the ability to synthesize information. Its measurement requires an instrument that can schematize both intention and orientation. The article ends by proposing a system of identification, process, and supplementation rules for language processing based on the assumptions underlying the process of synthesis. (MSE)

The first of three articles on the ways in which people formulate their observations, this paper considers the basic assumptions of both syntactic and paradigmatic models of cognition and their applications in natural (i.e., human) and artificial (i.e., computer) information processing. The analysis begins with background information on the nature of inventions and discoveries, the nature of perception, and modelling of the process of concept formulation. The differences between syntagmatic and paradigmatic processing models are then outlined, and the principles of operationalization, simulation, cross sectional analysis, and cross level analysis are examined as they are applied to models. The role of context in examination of languages is also discussed. A list of 38 references is appended. (MSE)

The conceptions of information needs of seven American and seven Swedish mechanics employed by a Swedish multinational machine industry are compared by using perspective text analysis to analyze their verbal responses to three open-ended questions concerning their need for work-related information. The structures embedded in the texts are visualized in three-dimensional cubic spaces, and the results are discussed with respect to their dimensionality, as well as to the phase spaces of the cognitive processes. Results indicate that the Swedish mechanics seem to subordinate themselves to the company and are unconcerned about obtaining information of a technical nature. The American workers, however, feel that their worth is insufficiently recognized and express a need for instruction to be provided by the company to facilitate their understanding of technical information. It is concluded that this divergence in information needs between the American and Swedish mechanics ought to have considerable effects on the information policy of the industry. (KM)

The exploitation of human and physical resources in the 1950s and 1960s to maximize economic and technological expansion has brought about an enhanced awareness of their negative consequences and of the importance of the environment on human well-being. This study focuses on the need for an assessment of an individual's capacity for living in various environmental settings. Three simulated social models illustrating the relationship between an individual and an environment were prepared in a slide series. The three models were: (1) a behavior model, focusing on behavior modification; (2) a humanistic model, focusing on the importance of nature and human dignity; and (3) a growth model, emphasizing steering and control in continous growth. The Swedish model, representing the Swedish way of creating a quality of life was included for comparison. The models were shown to 214 inservice teachers and 57 high school pupils who were asked to assess the possibilities and constraints on life in each social model. Each simulated environment was evaluated for its physical existence, security, freedom of action, efficacy, and adaptability. Results showed that the growth and behavior models were viewed favorably. Contrary to expressed preferences toward humanistic values discriminant analysis indicated that the growth model was conceived as the best way to secure quality of life. (JAZ)

This presentation is based on a method for analyzing the verbal flow in text-building behavior. The method is called Perspective Text Analysis (PTA). It locates and makes use of the discontinuities in produced text. Its task is to characterize the mechanism that governs language production and to foster an understanding of the actual processes of movement in language. The study of this phenomenon is founded on the experimental conditions provided by the famous Visual Cliff. It is assumed that informational invariants are established through the production of experimental text. Through the behavioral dynamics produced by four experimental subjects, the metrical structure of the coordinates of a language space has been established. Furthermore, it is shown that kinetic properties, like velocity and direction, of a verbal flow can be measured and represented by means of a simple regression analysis. Its slope coefficient gives expression to the degree of deviation in the curvature of the measured space. The results of the regression analysis are represented in a log-by-log plot. This plot shows that the verbal flows of the studied systems are characterized by highly similar kinetic properties. An appendix highly similar flow-field as well as translations in English, French, and German. (Contains 26 references, 3 figures, and 3 tables.) (Author/SLD)

ANACONDA, a computer-based system for analysis of verbal content by data processing is presented as a scientifically more satisfactory substitute for classical content analysis. This system was applied to 40 behavioral science researchers who were interviewed regarding their channels of information for concept formation, problem discussion, research methodology, and documentation. Researchers' statements were analyzed into a noun-verb noun relationship representing agent, action, and object. The treatment of the researchers' verbal statements by ANACONDA involved an analysis and synthesis of both empirical statements and the relationships between them. These statements were then studied by a discriminant analysis. Finally, an attempt was made to demonstrate the validity of this methodological approach. (Author/CP)