Functional notation:: Basics and applications

A graphical formalism is described for representing methodological knowledge relevant to behavioral science research, Formalization in this field may have several advantages: 1. Formal specification may force the researcher to explicitly formulate the reasoning behind a research design. 2. A clear formal representation may serve demonstration purposes in both statistical consultation. In this chapter the basics of Functional notation are indicated. Emphasis is placed on graphical representations. Aspects in which the formalism differs from other proposals for knowledge representation are: (a) the possibility to indicate complex, even creative, processes; (b) the possibility to indicate temporal aspects using finite sets of time points; (c) the possibility to represent contextual information. Several examples are given of applications.