The fallacy of the cognitive free fall in communication metaphor: A semiotic analysis

Thellefsen, Martin; Thellefsen, Torkild; Sørensen, Bent

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/89830 Copy

Description

Title

The fallacy of the cognitive free fall in communication metaphor: A semiotic analysis

Author(s)

• Thellefsen, Martin
• Thellefsen, Torkild
• Sørensen, Bent

Issue Date

2015

Keyword(s)

• Philosophies of Information
• Information Science
• Librarianship
• Libraries

Abstract

This paper is a theoretical analysis of the cognitive free-fall metaphor, used within the cognitive view, as a model for explaining the communication process between a generator and a receiver of a message. Its aim is to demonstrate that the idea of a cognitive free fall taking place within this communication process leads to apparent theoretical paradoxes, partly fostered by unclear definitions of key information-science concepts—namely, tokens, signs, information, and knowledge and their interrelatedness—and a naïve theoretical framework. The paper promotes a semiotically inspired model of communication that demonstrates that what takes place in communication is not a cognitive free fall, but rather a fall from a pragmatic level of knowing or knowledge to a level of representation or information. The paper further argues that the communication process more ideally can be expressed as a complex interrelation of emotion, information, and cognition.

Publisher

Johns Hopkins University Press and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

ISSN

0024-2594

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/89830

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2015.0011

Copyright and License Information

Copyright (2014) Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

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