ABSTRACT
A pilot study is an "experimental experiment" in which an investigator attempts a gross manipulation of his variables to determine the feasibility of his study, clarify his assumptions and refine his measuring instruments. The drawings that follow are "pilot models" in the same spirit, for they are preliminary experiments in diagramming self-to-environment, self-to-self and self-to-other communication. The complexities of human communication present an unbelievably difficult challenge to the student of human affairs. To build a satisfactory theory about so complex an event through sole reliance upon the resources of ordinary language seems less and less promising. The pilot models described may not fulfill any of these criteria completely, but they will have served a useful purpose if they prompt the search for better ways of representing the inner dynamics of the communication process.
