Example of non-physical models for goal-directed processes

Here is an example of a kind of modelling language for an information-based / 'cognitive' process that is fundamentally non-physical (or 'extra-physical') in the sense that it involves the notions of 'goal state' and 'feedback'. It is not simply a causal mechanism; it incorporates a design. The diagram is from Susan Hurley's The Shared Circuits Model:How Control, Mirroring and Simulation Can Enable Imitation, Deliberation, and Mindreading [text]. You see similar types of models in Carver and Scheier's work - e.g. 'On the Self-Regulation of Behaviour'. Cybernetics type models.