55
Chapter 6
Functional Syntheses, Laws,
and Design
PROPERTIES OF FUNCTIONAL SYNTHESES
Functional synthes is is a mode for research that is critical to understanding
systems that are only partially decomposab le, dynamic, and adaptive, such as joint
cognitive systems (JCSs). Functiona l synthesis is empirical sinc e it is based on a
variety of observations collected in different w ays. It is theoretical as it proposes a
model of how something functions in order to ach ieve goals.
The functional accounts in “Being Bumpable” and in Hutchins (1995b) and
Patterson et al., (1999) illustrate (and should be judged against) the following
characteris tics of functiona l models captured in Table 3.
Functional synthes es generate models based on patterns that are ...