Who introduced causal-loop diagrams

[George Richardson]

I think the one who first used causal-loop diagrams would probably have
been Ed Roberts at MIT (and Pugh-Roberts) in the early 1960s. Jays
"Market Growth" paper (1968) has a form of causal-loop diagram. One of
the earliest causal-loop diagram consulting interventions I know of (that
was published) is in the article "Systems Intervention: New Help for
Hospitals," by Sterns, Bergan, Roberts, and Quigley (Health Care Mgmt
Review 1(4) (1976).

...GPR

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George P. Richardson G.P.Richardson@Albany.edu
Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy Phone: 518-442-5257
University at Albany - SUNY, Albany, NY 12222 Fax: 518-442-5298
http://cnsvax.albany.edu/~gr383/
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[Nicola BIANCHI]

Who, first, introduced causal-loop diagrams into
SD modeling process?
Thanks in advance,

Nicola Bianchi <bianchi@ge.cnr.it>
CNR-CST
National Research Council of Italy
Centre for the History of Technology
Via Balbi, 6
16126 Genoa, Italy
fax: +39 010 209 9826
http://www.ge.cnr.it/CST/M&S/

[JandJpugh@aol.com]

The four original SDers (Forrester, Fey, Pugh, and Roberts) were all familiar
with diagramming techniques used in servomechanisms. We adopted those methods
to our requirements. Our first were the familiar level, auxiliary, rate
diagram.
The simpler word and arrow diagram was reinvented by I dont know who, but was
familiar to me from EE.

Jack Pugh

JandJpugh@aol.com

[Jim Hines]

Ed Roberts once told me that he introduced causal loops.

Jim Hines
MIT and LeapTec
From: Jim Hines <jimhines@interserv.com>