Working with Representation

The Representation system manages what sources of information (perceptions, memories, imagination) we focus on and use and what we discount and ignore. It also manages how we retain and use that information to build meaning schemas that help us to understand and navigate the world around us and to communicate our understanding to other people.

Discrepancies originating in the Representation system could be the result of inattentional blindness (inappropriate schema filtering), source mis-prioritisation or confusion. mis-remembering and inappropriate coding (mis-conceptualising).

• Journaling, story-boarding and  self-confrontation are general tools which use outputs from encoding (behaviours or communication) to feedback into attending

• Socio-linguistic analysis and clean language can be used during journaling and on the outputs of journaling to unpack how you are interpreting and encoding meaning from your experiences

• Mindfulness practice and perceptual mode isolation increase your ability to pay attention to various aspects of your experience and cognitive interviewing enhances recall of events

• Feedback, perspective shifting and self-distancing and context analysis allow you to review experiences in ways that draw attention to different aspects

• Naming elements of an experience or using metaphors or archetypes can help to facilitate efficient cognitive encoding and processing of a subject and concept mapping helps to structure and organise your ideas and impressions