AIM Framework glossary
Model
Canonical definition
A Model is an Individual whose observed directional valence toward an Object enters another Individual's Observer channel as a comparative Referent. Directional valence includes approach and avoidance: a Model running from something is a Model in the same sense as a Model moving toward it. The Observer's baseline function is the reading of the surrounding field whether or not other agents are present; the Model case is the social special case of that function, not the definition of the channel. The Minimum Installation Condition's gate clause opens on perception of a Model exhibiting directional valence toward an Object; the sign of that valence sets the sign of what installs, and its strength enters the magnitude. An Individual can act to become Salient but cannot set the Salience another computes, so a Model supplies the observed directional valence and does not write the receiving Individual's Belief Register.
Explanation
A Model is someone you can see wanting or shunning something, whether they are moving toward it, lingering over it, or moving away from it, and that visible valence is what your Observer uses to mark Objects as mattering. You do not have to decide to copy them. The channel that tracks movement in the field tracks their orientation the same way it tracks any other Object, and where that orientation shows them wanting or shunning something, that is enough for a Mimetic signal to install. The Model is not your Self-Model. The Self-Model is the story you hold about yourself. The Model is another Individual in the field.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Construct.
Derivation
Also in the entry
Distinction from Self-Model. The Self-Model is a subset of the Belief Register: Beliefs about one's own identity, values, capacities, and position. A Model is another Individual, observed. Collapsing the two produces the error of treating adopted desire as self-knowledge. Distinction from Prestige-Biased Learning. Prestige-Biased Learning is the heuristic that preferentially copies high-prestige Models. The Model is the observed Individual; the heuristic is one weighting over which Models count.