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This paper presents a new technique for helping managers to talk through and develop their view of difficult and complex issues, which are given expression by arranging a collection of objects, some of them symbolically rich, in an arrangement or 'sculpture'. At the same time, the managers describe and develop the meanings being given to, and the relationships between, the objects. The technique is in the tradition of elicitation techniques, such as cognitive mapping, in that it encourages a person or a group to dialogue with a physical representation of their ideas. Meanings are not merely described but sometimes actively constructed or negotiated. Theoretically, the technique draws on recent work in cognitive psychology and linguistics on metaphors. The paper describes and evaluates our experience with using the technique in a variety of different circumstances, and argues that, more than two-dimensional techniques, cognitive sculpting offers the 'requisite variety' to capture and communicate the richness and metaphoric complexity of managers' views of their world. Key words - cognitive mapping, elicitation, group decision, modelling, subjectivity

Graphical representation limit abstraction in cognitive actions, and thus aid 'processibility'. External and internal graphical and linguistic representational system show that a cognitive theory of peoples reasoning performance explain the logical 'equivalence' of inferences evident in graphical and linguistic form and the implementational 'difference' which influences facility of inference. Mental models data is covered to find new empirical predictions. Architecture of working memory's capacity to store specific representations easily is also considered.