Multiple Models: In the Mind and in the World

Abstract

Models, in whatever sense, have a dual status: they are what they are and they represent something else, even Borges’ (1999) legendary point-to-point map. Representations select, add, and distort the information they represent. Models are meant for more than representation; they are meant as thinking tools, to promote inference, discovery, and creative thought. Research has shown that representations created on the page or in the air (gesture) have an accessible semantics and syntax and that such representations promote thought through a wordless conversation between the eye and the hand and the (sometimes virtual) page.