Something similar occurs within the scientific method. The cumulative back-action of observation eventually overthrows its parental theory. In other words, at any one instant, what the system does is determined by what it is, but what it will be has yet to emerge. Ernst von Glasersfeld eloquently speaks of the application of the radical constructivist model in education. The model is more broadly useful in any domain where experiential mapping breaks down.
Mediation is a good example.
Since there is no possible knowledge of 'external reality', common sense seems to dictate that we drop that construct in cross-experiential situations. Busy insects in the summer grasses, finches chattering in the willow branches, trout undulating like silvery pennants at the bottom of the cool creek, and of course wonderfully complex people, usually interesting and unpredictable. We're all heuristic behaviorists because we have to be. When we see adaptive, self-preserving, intelligent behaviors, for instance, we recognize the similarity to ourselves. This order recognition arises not only with people.