Conceptual Models (Essay Sample)

Running Head: CONCEPTUAL MODELS
CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS AS A HUMAN COGNITIVE ACTIVITY
Name
Course
Institution
Tutor
Date
Question 1 Conceptual analysis (Sowa)
Concepts are mental representations used by the brain to dictate its functions in categorizing items in the world. Concepts are responsible for allowing people to come up with appropriate inferences about the experiences they face in their everyday life (Chalmers, 1996). As demonstrated in Sowa's work, conceptual analysis is an important tool in countering cognitive processes such as categorization, memory, decision-making, learning, and inferences. With reference to Sowa's work, the three concepts analyzed are concepts of freedom, moral responsibility, and ability (Chalmers, 1996).
Free will, moral responsibility, and ability
Everybody alive tends to make use of valid reasoning. However, the reasoning that is actually projected contrasts many logicians' works. Free-will reasoning performed by most people involves information obtained through many types of media. In a separate view, formal free will logic is primarily concerned with valid reasoning based on information in a single form only (Jackson, 1998). For instance, Sowa relates conceptual graphs to heuristic reasoning; however, it is far from being adequately developed or demonstrated by working programs within his free will sources. It serves it right to note that Sowa, out of free will, moral responsibility, and ability, develops a calculus of type definitions and schemas using a basic reasoning operator he identifies as ‘maximal join' (Jackson, 1998). Out of this, it is evident that multi-modal reasoning has become one big part of free will judgment.
In the context of free will, a person has the mandate to choose his or her course of action. Free will is an important aspect that comes in handy with moral responsibility and human ability. In all these aspects of conceptual analysis, there are concepts ‘behind' the words. One of the ways that Sowa use in identifying the concepts behind various words speaking boldly of what all people know, but rarely manage to say it all. He says that what can be termed as natural is dependent on the topic (Jackson, 1998). Conceptual perception involves using all means to create perception using any formula available. For instance, images could arise from either sensory stimulation of the free will at mind such that a derived meaning can be perceived and understood (Jackson, 1998). In light of it, internally generated images serve the same purposes with concepts placed behind a word. Consciousness is the greatest tool in mapping concrete concepts with perceived perception. Consciousness is a tool used to unravel the hidden concepts behind a free will judgment over a situation. Moral responsibility facilitates an enhancement tool in gauging proper free will and ability (Jackson, 1998).
Within all the works done by Sowa, he uses many concepts to enhance meaning and understanding of situations, and calculations. For instance, he uses conceptual graphs in essence of concept and related models specifically citing that every arc in every relation is linked to a concept in determination (Jackson, 1998).
Question 2 Pictures—and a thousand words (Hall)
A close observation of the human life reveals that it is based on beliefs and impact of beliefs on concepts brought forward by images. Sean hall elaborates further in his book ‘This Means This and This Means That' where he expounds on semiotics. The book is geared towards opening the minds of people to the in-depth meaning carried by graphic representation (McNeilly, 1996). He argues that semiotics subsumes textual, graphical, and interactive communication methods. He engages in using flowcharts, drawings, and directory trees as part of his diagrammatic language. diagrams are used to show internal meaning rather than telling what the writer means (McNeilly, 1996).
The first example he uses is images. He presents an image to the reader and on the image, he asks the reader a question for the reader to gurgle over the answers. He relatively goes ahead to discuss the answers that he thinks may suit the image to open more room for the reader to think critically and analyze (McNeilly, 1996).
For example, he uses an example of a glass door with an outward extending handle marked “push”. He then poses a question beside the door asking how the door is opened i.e. ‘how is the door opened?' (Senge et al, 1994). In an imagery representation, the door handle is made in such a way that implicates that it is supposed to be pulled and most people will resort into pulling the door while trying to open it. However, there are clear instructions that the door is supposed to be pushed. The image showing how to open the door confuses and in other instances, contradicts the written instruction (Senge et al, 1994). This means that images and pictures require a particular manner of observation and critical analysis for interpretation. He suggests that the right solution to the problem is the installation of a flat plate that enables the push function. In this way, communication is purely enhanced by the handle. He uses the handle to serve the purpose and meaning in a semiotic manner (Senge et al, 1994).
The second example involves two sticks with irregular notches, curves, and indentations carved into them. In his image representation, the sticks are actually maps created by the Inuit. They are held under their mittens feeling their finger contours so that a pattern coastline is formed. Just like the door, the Inuit maps are physical representations in image form to embody their meaning. He goes a mile further to explore on how images and pictures are used in semiotic manner for advertising, media, and art (Senge et al, 1994). He says that images and pictures carry very strong and deep semiotic meaning.
A picture is worth a thousand words meaning that it can generate numerous ideas and outlay them within one single diagram. They tend to carry a seemingly more real and tangible depictions of concepts that in other dimensions, seem nonrepresentational and indescribable (Senge et al, 1994). The conceptual photography lingers in bringing meaningful message to the viewers. The viewers are only left to interpretation task. Pictures can be as specific as possible and as complicated too. If one does not take good judgment in analyzing the meaning being represented, pictures and images may bring out a completely wrong message. One is supposed to look at the in-depth meaning rather than the shallow meaning (Senge et al, 1994).
Question 3 Experimentalism and mental models (Senge)
Senge conceptualizes the learning environment by defining and demonstrating the importance of mental models. In order to create a learning environment, a person is eligible to the creation of mental models that will be effective in generating a learning atmosphere. Senge defines mental models as conceptual frameworks that are made of generalizations and assumptions that facilitate a better understanding of the world hence creating the basis for action in it. He suggests that system thinking is a cognitive human activity (Senge et al, 1994). In my view, mental models are psychological representations of real or imaginary situations that can happen to a person. It involves examining the state of things in the back of our minds, forming mental diagrams of the situations, perceiving on what the diagrams represent, and concluding their importance and truth (Senge et al, 1994). Many mental models are unconscious and unspoken assumptions. It is important to surface and scrutinize them in order to see the world clearly.
My first model involves what I have often heard people say. In most occasions, people will say that carbohydrates are very healthy for human co...