The system idea as a tool in understanding conceptions about the digestive system

The general concept of a ‘system’ is used to propose a framework for modelling knowledge about physiological systems. ‘Systems’ criteria are assumed to be closely related to cognition about systems, as follows: the mental organization of knowledge about any system must depend on perceiving a collection of objects as an organized whole, which in turn ought to be based on what are essentially intuitive criteria for organization in systems. With this approach, the understanding of the digestive system by school students is studied. General systems criteria help to frame questions dealing with the structural/functional and purposive/non‐purposive aspects, organismic or mechanistic nature of the system, and ideas of feedback and central control.