In the policy making process, one of the important steps is the consideration of the consequences deriving from the alternative choices. For the case of information policy, the present research has begun the development of a methodology for doing so. The methodology chosen was modeling. Information policy modeling serves the dual purposes of…

This paper offers a model that integrates chaos theory and cybernetics, which can be used to describe the structure of decision making within small groups. The paper begins with an overview of cybernetics and chaos. Definitional characteristics of cybernetics are reviewed along with salient constructs, such as goal-seeking, feedback, feedback…

Divided into three sections, this paper explores semiotic phenomenology as a paradigm for communicology (a translation for the new French "comunicologie" and the "German Kommunikationgemeinschaft," which are used increasingly to suggest a qualitative and human signification as opposed to the quantitative and technological…

Presents an overview of feedback within the cybernetics and social frameworks. These feedback concepts are then compared with the interactive feedback concept evolving within the framework of information seeking and retrieving, based on their conceptualization of the feedback loop and notion of information. (Author/AEF)

Discusses intelligent computer-aided learning (ICAL) support systems and considers learner characteristics as elements of ICAL student models. Cybernetic theory and attribute-treatment results are discussed, six components of a student model for tutoring are described, and methods for determining the student's model of the tutor are examined. (22…

Noting that China has undergone tremendous social change in its three decades under the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ideology, this paper contends that such change has triggered tension that upsets the equilibrium of the entire social system. The paper uses Talcott Parson's cybernetic communication model to explain the societal level changes that have…

An approach that uses diagrams to illustrate systems of influence is described and proposed as a medium for cross-cultural communication. The approach, entitled System Dynamics, facilitates representation of complex interactions, and has been used in a variety of scientific and professional fields since its inception in the 1950's. Influence…

As family therapy becomes a serious intellectual disipline, the relationships among its leading variations require closer examination. To examine similarities and differences among four closely related approaches (brief, problem-focused therapy; structural family therapy; strategic family therapy; and systemic family therapy) and to determine if…

A classification scheme for multimedia interaction is described based on the degree of control and type of cognitive engagement experienced by learners in prescriptive, democratic, and cybernetic independent learning environments. Reactive, proactive, and mutual levels of interaction and their associated functions and transactions are discussed.…

The use of the cohort-survival method for projecting student enrollments is widely known in educational finance literature; however, the limited information provided by the model impedes planners in making future operational decisions. The cohort-survival method employs historical rates of usage to predict future patterns of usage and produces a…