What are NLP Representational Systems?

This perspective on Representational Systems is pulled together and adapted from multiple sources.

Representational Systems

Representational systems are sometimes also known as sensory modalities. This model examines how the human mind both takes in data and then processes information.

Information can be treated as if it is processed through the senses when taken in and then internally analysed, coded and stored in ways that can be understood in terms of sensory representation.

Consider that within your mind you may ‘talk to yourself’, an internal auditory experience; visualise or dream something in pictures, an internal visual representation; we also have feelings and emotions which are considered a kinaesthetic sense.

Clearly there are five possible sensory modalities and in NLP these are known as VAKOG. (Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic, Olfactory, Gustatory).

In early studies it was observed that smell and taste are rarely used in processing information and storing and coding data, with the exception of the association of certain powerful memories, especially related to smell. For practical purposes the representation system model was reduced to three components V-A-K.

Subsequently a further distinction was made between two types of auditory processing and sensing. There is the processing and coding of information in the form of imagined sounds which is pure auditory (A) and then there is the processing of data by talking to oneself internally, known as internal dialogue or ‘ID’ (sometimes represented as A^ID). The representation system model becomes V-A-K-ID and this is referred to as the 4-tuple in NLP.

 

Preferred Representational System

Originally it was asserted that individuals preferred one representation system over another and the idea of the ‘preferred representation system’ (PRS) was developed, classifying individuals as visual, auditory or kinaesthetic thinkers. This concept was widely used in the development of educational theories in the late 1970’s on different learning styles and is still used today, the most well known theory is know as the Dunn & Dunn model, developed in 1978.

Extensive research in the 1980’s has established a more subtle distinction in the difference between the process of taking in information and of internally processing and coding information.  For internal processes, individuals have been found to use all representation systems to varying degrees and no single sense preferences are observed. The processes used are dependant on the situation and the individual’s specific mental processes or strategies in use moment to moment.

The concept of preferred representation still exists and is now related exclusively to the process of taking in data. Thus individuals are still considered to have a PRS for receiving information, however not for thinking with uses multiple representations naturally and easily.

The Complete Representation System Model

A further distinction is made in the internal representations for Visual and Auditory in that these representations can be both constructed or remembered. For example you may visually remember the picture of someone’s face in your mind and remember the sound of the words you heard them saying, thus visually remembered, V^r and auditory remembered, A^r. Equally you may build up a picture of something in your mind and imagine what something looks and sounds like that you have never seen or experienced before, thus visually constructed V^c and auditory constructed A^c.

 

Uses of the Model

An awareness of representation systems can be used in pacing and leading cues to build rapport and improve communication. This is especially important in relation to the use of preferred representation systems for taking in data.

You may hear someone say “show me the data” (visual) or, alternatively ‘tell me about it” (auditory), or even “walk me through the report” (kinaesthetic). It is important for understanding to adapt the presentation of information to match an individual’s preferred way of receiving data.

 

Representational systems are also relevant where some tasks are better performed within one representation system or another. For example, in education, spelling is often learned best by children who have unconsciously developed a strategy of visualising words rather than phonetically ‘sounding out’. When taught to visualise words, previously poor spellers can improve.

This is an example of the use of representation systems in modelling and applying different mental strategies. The way in which someone does or thinks something can be modelled as a series of external and internal representations. It is possible to elicit a person’s strategy in this way as well as then change or copy the strategy as required.

Adapted from a Wikipedia version, this example how might someone process replying to the question “Which dress do you think will look best on me?” when shown two possible dresses, one person’s strategy could be:

Step	Activity	Notation	What it is being used for.
1	Auditory external	Ae	Hear the question
2	Visual external	Ve	Look at the dress 1.
3	Visual constructed	Vc	Create a mental image of the person wearing the dress
4	Kinaesthetic internal	Ki	Get a feeling from looking at the image
5	Auditory internal dialogue	ID	Ask yourself “do I like that feeling?”
6		Ve - Vc - Ki – ID	Repeat steps 2-5, for dress 2
7	Auditory constructed	Ac	Create an answer to the question
8	Auditory remembered	Ar	Remember the verbal response to previous uses of this answer
9	Kinaesthetic internal	Ki	Remember the feeling of that response
10	Auditory internal dialogue	ID	Ask yourself “do I like that feeling?”
11	Auditory constructed	Ac	Modify the answer accordingly
12	Auditory external	Ae	Reply

 

If a given strategy for one person is effective it can be used by others, alternatively an ineffective strategy can be modified either by modifying individual steps, testing alternative approaches or, eliciting and operating other people’s strategies.

Note that the steps in a strategy occur extremely fast and often out of conscious awareness and often skilled observation and careful inquiry is required for the steps to become apparent to the person concerned.

Comments

[Gururaj G. K]

Representation of images is an important issue. There are gonna be trade-offs between resolution and file-size etc
http://www.cognisign.com/