Mental model
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A mental model is an internal representation (
Mental models can help shape
In
History
The term mental model is believed to have originated with Kenneth Craik in his 1943 book The Nature of Explanation.[1][2] Georges-Henri Luquet in Le dessin enfantin (Children's drawings), published in 1927 by Alcan, Paris, argued that children construct internal models, a view that influenced, among others, child psychologist Jean Piaget.
Jay Wright Forrester defined general mental models thus:
The image of the world around us, which we carry in our head, is just a model. Nobody in his head imagines all the world, government or country. He has only selected concepts, and relationships between them, and uses those to represent the real system (Forrester, 1971).
Since then, there has been much discussion and use of the idea in
Charlie Munger popularized the use of multi-disciplinary mental models for making business and investment decisions.[4]
Mental models and reasoning
One view of human reasoning is that it depends on mental models. In this view, mental models can be constructed from perception, imagination, or the comprehension of discourse (Johnson-Laird, 1983). Such mental models are similar to architects' models or to physicists' diagrams in that their structure is analogous to the structure of the situation that they represent, unlike, say, the structure of logical forms used in formal rule theories of reasoning. In this respect, they are a little like pictures in the
Principles of mental models
Mental models are based on a small set of fundamental assumptions (
Reasoning with mental models
People infer that a conclusion is valid if it holds in all the possibilities. Procedures for reasoning with mental models rely on counter-examples to refute invalid inferences; they establish validity by ensuring that a conclusion holds over all the models of the premises. Reasoners focus on a subset of the possible models of multiple-model problems, often just a single model. The ease with which reasoners can make deductions is affected by many factors, including age and working memory (Barrouillet, et al., 2000). They reject a conclusion if they find a counterexample, i.e., a possibility in which the premises hold, but the conclusion does not (Schroyens, et al. 2003; Verschueren, et al., 2005).
Criticisms
Scientific debate continues about whether human reasoning is based on mental models, versus formal
Mental models of dynamics systems: mental models in system dynamics
Characteristics
A mental model is generally:
- founded on unquantifiable, impugnable, obscure, or incomplete facts;
- flexible – considerably variable in positive as well as in negative sense;
- an information filter that causes selective perception, perception of only selected parts of information;
- very limited, compared with the complexities of the world, and even when a gestaltisms or failure of the principles of logic, etc.;
- dependent on sources of information, which one cannot find anywhere else, are available at any time and can be used.[5][6][7]
Mental models are a fundamental way to understand organizational learning. Mental models, in popular science parlance, have been described as "deeply held images of thinking and acting".[8] Mental models are so basic to understanding the world that people are hardly conscious of them.
Expression of mental models of dynamic systems
S.N. Groesser and M. Schaffernicht (2012) describe three basic methods which are typically used:
- Causal loop diagrams – displaying tendency and a direction of information connections and the resulting causality and feedback loops
- System structure diagrams – another way to express the structure of a qualitative dynamic system
- Stock and flow diagrams - a way to quantify the structure of a dynamic system
These methods allow showing a mental model of a dynamic system, as an explicit, written model about a certain system based on internal beliefs. Analyzing these graphical representations has been an increasing area of research across many social science fields.[9] Additionally software tools that attempt to capture and analyze the structural and functional properties of individual mental models such as Mental Modeler, "a participatory modeling tool based in fuzzy-logic cognitive mapping",[10] have recently been developed and used to collect/compare/combine mental model representations collected from individuals for use in social science research, collaborative decision-making, and natural resource planning.
Mental model in relation to system dynamics and systemic thinking
In the simplification of reality, creating a model can find a sense of reality, seeking to overcome
These two disciplines can help to construct a better coordination with the reality of mental models and simulate it accurately. They increase the probability that the consequences of how to decide and act in accordance with how to plan.[5]
- System dynamics – extending mental models through the creation of explicit models, which are clear, easily communicated and can be compared with each other.
- Systemic thinking– seeking the means to improve the mental models and thereby improve the quality of dynamic decisions that are based on mental models.
Experimental studies carried out in weightlessness[11] and on Earth using neuroimaging [12] showed that humans are endowed with a mental model of the effects of gravity on object motion.
Single and double-loop learning
After analyzing the basic characteristics, it is necessary to bring the process of changing the mental models, or the process of learning. Learning is a back-loop process, and feedback loops can be illustrated as: single-loop learning or double-loop learning.
Single-loop learning
Mental models affect the way that people work with information, and also how they determine the final decision. The decision itself changes, but the mental models remain the same. It is the predominant method of learning, because it is very convenient.
Double-loop learning
Double-loop learning (see diagram below) is used when it is necessary to change the mental model on which a decision depends. Unlike single loops, this model includes a shift in understanding, from simple and static to broader and more dynamic, such as taking into account the changes in the surroundings and the need for expression changes in mental models.[6]
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See also
- All models are wrong
- Cognitive map
- Cognitive psychology
- Conceptual model
- Educational psychology
- Folk psychology
- Internal model (motor control)
- Knowledge representation
- Lovemap
- Macrocognition
- Map–territory relation
- Model-dependent realism
- Neuro-linguistic programming
- Neuroeconomics
- Neuroplasticity
- OODA loop
- Psyche (psychology)
- Self-stereotyping
- Social intuitionism
- Space mapping
- System dynamics
- Text and conversation theory
Notes
- S2CID 141149408. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
The contemporary notion that mental modelling plays a significant role in human reasoning was formulated, initially, by Kenneth Craik in 1943.
- . Retrieved 17 July 2014.
Although Johnson-Laird (1989) is generally credited with coining the term mental model, the history of the concept may be traced to Craik's (1943) work entitled The Nature of Explanation.
- ^ "Mental models" Archived 2011-05-18 at the Wayback Machine, report at www.lauradove.info.
- ^ "The Psychology of Human Misjudgement", speech by Charlie Munger
- ^ a b Šusta, Marek. "Několik slov o systémové dynamice a systémovém myšlení" (PDF) (in Czech). Proverbs, a.s. pp. 3–9. Retrieved 2009-01-15.
- ^ ISBN 978-80-245-0626-5.)
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ Ford, David N., Sterman, John D. "Expert Knowledge Elicitation to Improve Mental and Formal Models" (PDF). Cambridge, Massachusetts, US - Massachusetts Institute of Technology. pp. 18–23. Retrieved 2009-01-11.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Leading for a Change", Ralph Jacobson, 2000, Chapter 5, Page102
- .
- ^ "Mental Modeler: A Fuzzy-Logic Cognitive Mapping Modeling Tool for Adaptive Environmental Management" (PDF). mentalmodeler.com. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
- S2CID 30444364.
- S2CID 22179461.
References
- Barrouillet, P. et al. (2000). Conditional reasoning by mental models: chronometric and developmental evidence. Cognit. 75, 237-266.
- Byrne, R.M.J. (2005). The Rational Imagination: How People Create Counterfactual Alternatives to Reality. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
- Byrne, R.M.J. & Johnson-Laird, P.N. (2009). 'If' and the problems of conditional reasoning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 13, 282-287
- Cheng, P.C. and Holyoak, K.J. (2008) Pragmatic reasoning schemas. In Reasoning: studies of human inference and its foundations (Adler, J.E. and Rips, L.J., eds), pp. 827–842, Cambridge University Press
- Cosmides, L. et al. (2005) Detecting cheaters. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 9,505–506
- Forrester, J. W. (1971) Counterintuitive behavior of social systems. Technology Review.
- Oberauer K. (2006) Reasoning with conditionals: A test of formal models of four theories. Cognit. Psychol. 53:238–283.
- O’Brien, D. (2009). Human reasoning includes a mental logic. Behav. Brain Sci. 32, 96–97
- Oaksford, M. and Chater, N. (2007) Bayesian Rationality. Oxford University Press
- Johnson-Laird, P.N. (1983). Mental Models: Towards a Cognitive Science of Language, Inference, and Consciousness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Johnson-Laird, P.N. (2006) How We Reason. Oxford University Press
- Johnson-Laird, P.N. and Byrne, R.M.J. (2002) Conditionals: a theory of meaning, inference, and pragmatics. Psychol. Rev. 109, 646–678
- Schroyens, W. et al. (2003). In search of counterexamples: Deductive rationality in human reasoning. Quart. J. Exp. Psychol. 56(A), 1129–1145.
- Verschueren, N. et al. (2005). Everyday conditional reasoning: A working memory-dependent tradeoff between counterexample and likelihood use. Mem. Cognit. 33, 107-119.
Further reading
- Georges-Henri Luquet (2001). Children's Drawings. ISBN 1-85343-516-3
- Chater, N. et al. (2006) Probabilistic Models of Cognition: Conceptual Foundations. Trends Cogn Sci 10(7):287-91. .
- Gentner, Dedre; Stevens, Albert L., eds. (1983). Mental Models. Hillsdale: Erlbaum 1983.
- Groesser, S.N. (2012). Mental model of dynamic systems. In N.M. Seel (Ed.). The encyclopedia of the sciences of learning (Vol. 5, pp. 2195–2200). New York: Springer.
- Groesser, S.N. & Schaffernicht, M. (2012). Mental Models of Dynamic Systems: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead. System Dynamics Review, 28(1): 46-68, Wiley.
- Johnson-Laird, P.N. 2005. The History of Mental Models
- Jones, N. A. et al. (2011). "Mental Models: an interdisciplinary synthesis of theory and methods" Ecology and Society.16 (1): 46.
- Jones, N. A. et al. (2014). "Eliciting mental models: a comparison of interview procedures in the context of natural resource management" Ecology and Society.19 (1): 13.
- Prediger, S. (2008). "Discontinuities for mental models - a source for difficulties with the multiplication of fractions" Proceedings of ICME-11, Topic Study Group 10, Research and Development of Number Systems and Arithmetic. (See also Prediger's references to Fischbein 1985 and Fischbein 1989, "Tacit models and mathematical reasoning".)
- Robles-De-La-Torre, G. & Sekuler, R. (2004). "Numerically Estimating Internal Models of Dynamic Virtual Objects Archived 2008-05-17 at the Wayback Machine". In: ACM Transactions on Applied Perception 1(2), pp. 102–117.
- Sterman, John D. A Skeptic’s Guide to Computer Models, Massachusetts Institute of Technology