01 January 2021

Mental Models LXI (Conceptual Models IV)

"This making or imagining of models (not necessarily or usually a material model, but a conceptual model) is a recognised way of arriving at an understanding of recondite and ultra-sensual occurring say in the ether or elsewhere." (Hugh MacColl, Mind: a quarterly review of psychology and philosophy Vol. 14, 1905)

"We realize, however, that all scientific laws merely represent abstractions and idealizations expressing certain aspects of reality. Every science means a schematized picture of reality, in the sense that a certain conceptual construct is unequivocally related to certain features of order in reality […]" (Ludwig von Bertalanffy, "General System Theory", 1968)

"A conceptual model is neither idle nor faithful: it is, or rather it is supposed to be and so taken until further notice, an approximate representation of a real thing." (Mario Bunge, "Philosophy of Physics", 1972)

"A conceptual model is a qualitative description of the system and includes the processes taking place in the system, the parameters chosen to describe the processes, and the spatial and temporal scales of the processes." (A Avogadro & R C Ragaini, "Technologies for Environmental Cleanup", 1993)

"A conceptual model is a model of the projected system that is independent of implementation details." (Michael Worboys, "GIS: A Computing Perspective", 1995)

"A conceptual model is what in the model theory is called a set of formulas making statements about the world." (Dickson Lukose [Eds.], "Conceptual Structures: Fulfilling Peirce's Dream" Vol 5, 1997)

"A conceptual model is a representation of the system expertise using this formalism. An internal model is derived from the conceptual model and from a specification of the system transactions and the performance constraints." (Zbigniew W. Ras & Andrzej Skowron [Eds.], Foundations of Intelligent Systems: 10th International Symposium Vol 10, 1997)

"When we entrust the domain of values to those whose intellectual concerns are essentially centred on empirical facts, and whose conceptual frameworks are inevitably constructed around sets of empirical facts, we need not be surprised if the result is moral confusion." (Ronald W K Paterson, "The New Patricians", 1998)

"The purpose of a conceptual model is to provide a vocabulary of terms and concepts that can be used to describe problems and/or solutions of design. It is not the purpose of a model to address specific problems, and even less to propose solutions for them. Drawing an analogy with linguistics, a conceptual model is analogous to a language, while design patterns are analogous to rhetorical figures, which are predefined templates of language usages, suited particularly to specific problems." (Peter P Chen [Ed.], "Advances in Conceptual Modeling", 1999)

"To put it simply, we communicate when we display a convincing pattern, and we discover when we observe deviations from our expectations. These may be explicit in terms of a mathematical model or implicit in terms of a conceptual model. How a reader interprets a graphic will depend on their expectations. If they have a lot of background knowledge, they will view the graphic differently than if they rely only on the graphic and its surrounding text." (Andrew Gelman & Antony Unwin, "Infovis and Statistical Graphics: Different Goals, Different Looks", Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics Vol. 22(1), 2013)

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