Rep 5 is a suite of conceptual representation tools founded in George Kelly's Personal Construct Psychology (PCP). Rep 5 supports research into, and applications of, a wide range of conversational constructivist methodologies. Its various tools and methods provide personal, professional and research support for modeling and understanding individual and communal psychological and social processes.
Rep 5 provides conversational tools for constructing and analyzing conceptual grids (RepGrid), and construct nets (RepNet). Grids are a generalization of what Kelly terms "conceptual" or "repertory" grids for eliciting construct networks through examples of their application, and nets are a generalization of visual syntactic structures used for representing construct networks directly in visual languages. Rep 5 supports the use of grid and net tools separately and in combination, including integration between those tools and other applications such as word processors and outliners.
RepGrid is the most recent in a series of grid tools originating in 1975 on the PDP12 as part of Mildred Shaw's research on repertory grid elicitation and analysis through conversational interaction with personal computers. Previous versions of the software include PLANET, RepGrid 2, KSS0, NEXTRA, Rep IV and WebGrid.
RepSocio extends RepGrid by providing tools to manage sets of related grids, enabling them to be combined, compared, and commonality in conceptual representations to be extracted.
WebGrid exposes most RepGrid functionality on the World Wide Web enabling remote data collection studies to be managed world-wide.
RepNet is the most recent in a series of programs for drawing the nodes and arcs of networks originating in 1965 on the PDP7 as part of Brian Gaines' research on interactive automata simulation and its application to modeling and emulating human skills. Previous versions of the software include the inductive modelers, MA CHERIE and ATOM, the semantic network systems, KMap and KNet, and various other visual language tools.
RepGrid, RepSocio, WebGrid and RepNet have been widely used in areas such as education, psychology, market research, sensory studies, management studies, artificial intelligence, knowledge acquisition, expert system development, spatial mapping, conflict negotiation and personnel assessment. The common requirement underlying all these diverse application areas is the need for conceptual modeling tools that are easy to use by those with minimal computer skills, do not require professional supervision, and produce models that are readily understood and interpreted.
Rep 5 integrates and enhances these conceptual representation tools in an open-architecture environment that enables users to add their own modules using the fast and powerful, object-oriented language, RepScript, and the Internet server shell, RepServe. In particular the WebGrid server is now included as a component of Rep 5, programmed through RepScript scripts that may be edited by the user to support their own applications and research.
All of the Rep 5 tools operate in a similar fashion under Microsoft Windows XP and Vista, and Apple OS X Tiger & Leopard, with files and data structures common to all platforms. They all support Unicode allowing users to re-script the elicitation and analysis in their own languages. An XML parser/generator is included in RepScript to facilitate data interchange with other systems.
Rep 5 is available in two different versions: the Research Version supporting academic studies and providing a comprehensive sets of tools; the Enterprise Version supporting industry studies and extending the Research version to support categorical and numeric data types in grids, and to allow RepServe/WebGrid to operate over Intranets and the Internet.
Simplified versions of RepGrid and RepNet intended for use in schools are freely available for personal (non-commercial) use. The Personal Version can elicit and analyze single grids with up to 15 elements and 15 constructs, and nets having a syntax from the set provided.
Rep IV Personal Version Downloads:
Manual (PDF),
Windows XP installer,
Macintosh OS X installer.