configuring |
Working Definition:
Configuring
is a
process by which one person projects unto another person in a recognizable situation an explicit or implicit narrative
pattern of virtual experience drawn from the memory of past
experiences and constructed (blended) from the perspective of the other person in the interaction to fit the actual interpersonal experience. Configuring
is a "figuring out" through analogies (& combining elements
of framed memories), an attempt to trace in general the contour of interactions
to see how specific instances work. It draws an outline of interactions
combining percepts and concepts. Configuring arranges
the elements of a situation (context of experience or basic experience)
in a particular place at a particular time so that they are positioned
in relation to each other for interacting with another person or persona.
Note: The components of configuring are aspects
of a process and not "steps" or "stages" of a process.
An "experience transfer" entails these aspects. The
seven facets of configuring are all conditions of the process. Recalling a
past experience (evoked by perception) is required in order to recognize the
target experience and feelings are
embedded in the memory which provoke identifying with the other
figure and focal adjustments are needed to alter the perspective which
can be understood as re-assembling the features of
the past experience framing it
in a way that can be mapped onto the prsent experience) in order to imagine switching
positions (transposing) with
the other person which, in
turn, projects onto
him or
her beliefs,
values,
etc. that
are associated with the initial retreival from the autobiographical/episodic
memory system or worldview.
These aspects of cognition (cognitive abilities) are activated in successive
cognitive events that cannot be reduced to
a stable
linear
pattern of stages or steps. October 21, 2005 12:25 PM: see Dawson, 1998,
42-43 for a model of a connectionist network type PDP (parallel distributed
processing) which contrasts to the more linear model of processing.
Disciplinary Definitions:
Since I coined the term, there are no disciplinary definitions of it other than mine.
Comments:
Configuring depends upon an original perception but generally functions by
manipulating mental images and concepts. (See "Configuring as a Mode of Blending."
)
Configuring transfers past experiences (and accompanying beliefs) in narrative form onto present situations. Transferring is understood as projecting. Projecting has several forms: imposing and transposing. (In the context of transposing, script theory does not account for the way people speak about their experiences.) Configuring is expressed in figurative or narrative forms. It has a perceptual and conceptual character. It provides for listeners or readers a guide to visualize the experience of the narrator.
An experience transfer is expressed as a narrative because descriptions of experience are narrations
The issue we are investigating is how persons understand each other. The situation to which the term "configuring" mostly refers in this study is an experience transfer More specifically, in this study the term refers to a process by which persons understand the experiences of other figures (both human and non-human). This can include the process by which persons understand themselves, intra-personal communication, because in that process we experience ourselves talking to ourselves as if two persons were involved. This should be treated as a special case of configuring because the projection is inward rather than outward.
The components of configuring are the same as those in any communication. However,
configuring refers to a particular kind of communication, namely,
instances in which persons communicate with each other through analogies. Such
communication has numerous and extensive dimensions involving personal
histories, cultures, and world
views.
for example:
Person 1 from culture A communicates experience ¥ by narrating it (usually with cues to assumed common experiences).
Person 2 from culture B imagines the narrated script which depends upon Person 2's willingness to map the script onto the memory of past experiences with similar structures $, £ (usually combining aspects of various experiences into a coherent virtual experience '¥', i.e., an imagined experience in which person 2 plays the role of person 1).
It is in the sense that one person "re-lives" (Nacherleben) another person's experience as if it were her own that experience is "transfered" from one person to another by analogy. As in a knowledge transfer,
In this cross-disciplinary model of IP configuring, an experience transfer is delineated as a cognitive "flow" charted from an initial input (an anecdote or script perceived by the subject) which is coded in a way that allows the subject to retrieve from his or her LTM autobiographical details that are mapped onto the initial script in a manner that re-assembles the details drawn from the episodic and semantic memories into a shape approximating the target script and thus creating a "trans-script" or analog script (a configuration) though which the other person's experience is interpreted and produces associated feelings which are potentially empathetic.
In my most recent reflections on configuring, I have backed off of restricting the process to IP relations. In this matter I am influenced by Lakoff and Langacker. Following their studies, I now understand it to involve the visualization of experiences where a transposition of perspective occurs and one's past experience is mapped onto present experiences. In the most general instance of configuring--the mapping of past experiences onto present ones, the transposition is from present to past to present. In more complex instances, the transposition is not only from present to past to present but also from self to other. The elements of configuring also shift by degree to produce different outcomes, e.g., projecting shifts from imposing to transposing. Imposing is assimilative and transposing is accomodative. (See assimilative & accommodative.)
Notes
Dilthey’s conception of “nachbild,” an afterimage or reproduction of an experience one has had which is the foundation of understanding since it is projected onto another person’s experience is uncannily similar to "a configuration".
"... mental spaces operate in working memory but are built up partly by activating structures available from long-term memory. Mental spaces are interconnected in working memory, can be modified dynamically as thought and discourse unfold, and can be used generally to model dynamic mappings in thought and lanuage." Fauconnier & Turner, The Way We Think, 2002 102
Fauconnier & Turner's conception of "running the blend" or "inhabiting the blend" lends a new sense to configuring in that it suggests that as a process configuring can behave similarly. Once the situation is imagined, it has a dynamic relation built into it with "desire" and "conflict" which project various scenarios arriving at different resolutions.
"The concepts of cognitive grammar make it possible
even at present, given minimal and largely uncontroversial claims about cognitive
ability, to arrive at precise, explicit, linguistically motivated analyses
of grammatical structure." (Langacker, Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, 2002, 64). This is an important
point for me in this particular chapter. I can match up certain aspects of "story
telling" with "minimal and largely uncontroversial claims about cognitive
ability." E.g., the cognitive ability to tell a story which is different
from the cognitive ability to form a proposition, even though in any stretch
of discourse both may occur in which would be regarded as telling a story.
"Deixis. I will use the term ground to indicate
the speech event, its participants, and its setting." A deictic expression
can then be defined as one that includes some reference to a ground element
within its scope of predication." (Langacker, Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, 2002, 126ff.) Are narratives
deictic expressions? This is probably one of their features. If so, configurations
are deictic. See "epistemically grounded" (Langacker, Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, 2002, 127) for grounding
in time. As deictic expressions they are grounded in space and time and hence yield
perspectives, etc. Note that pronouns are deictic. Such "grounding" is
a guide to visualization. It also
provides reference points for mapping experiences.
Check:
Erlebnis = virtual experience?
jjs
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last revised:
June 13, 2007
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