Table 1 Dimensions of complexity (right column), taken and adapted from Feltovich et al. (2004), organized into components, functional relationships, etc. The middle column represents the potential reductive tendencies that affect learners’ reasoning about complex biological systems (Spiro et al. 1988)

Components

Homogeneous: components are similar and perform similarly.

Heterogeneous: components are diverse and have diverse reponses.

Functional relationships

Linear: changes and interventions will have incremental impact.

Non-Linear: relationships between the variables are nonproportional.

Discrete: processes have discernable steps.

Continuous: Processes proceed in unbreakable continua.

Separable: processes occur in isolation.

Interactive: Processes have strong interactions and are interdependent.

Sequential: process have steps that occur in serial.

Simultaneous: multiple processes occur at the same time.

Static: multiple processes within systems are unchanging and can be captured in a single "snapshot".

Dynamic: critical characteristics are captured only by changes from frame to frame, possessing vector-like characteristics.

Deterministic: products are a result of simple cause and effect.

Emergent: results are products of systemwide, organic functions, requiring understanding the entire system to understand the parts well.

Universal: products will be the same in multiple contexts.

Conditional: application of principles do not hold across different situations, requiring sensitivity to context.

Regular: phenomena exhibit symmetry and repeatable patterns.

Irregular: phenomena exhibit asymmetry and absence of consistent patterns.

Interpretation

Single representation: a single viewpoint captures multiple processes.

Multiple Representations: elements in a situation afford many interpretations, functional uses, categorizations and so on, so that multiple schemas, analogies, models or case precedents are needed to capture and convey the meaning of the situation.