Cognitive scientists have argued that the mind constructs mental models as a result of perception, imagination and knowledge, and the comprehension of discourse.
Perception: Becoming aware of something by seeing, hearing or by using other senses.
Imagination: Forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects.
Knowledge: What is known perceptual experience and reasoning.
Comprehension of discourse: The action of understanding something by written or spoken communication.
One notion is that analogies or metaphors function as tools of thoughts which help structure unfamiliar domain (Gentner and Gentner, 1983)
Example: (Analogies) Flowing waters simulates the flow of electricity and any other liquid substances.
Example: (Metaphor)
More is up/good is up
I’m feeling up. That boosted my spirits
Get up. Wake up. She rises early
There are several methods used to track mental models:
- Novices and experts studies
- Comparing users’ performance on a system
- Protocol analysis
- Field observation
- Comparison across culture and historical comparison
- Content analysis
- Procedural mapping (Think aloud)
- Card sort and many more…
These methods can be used together to support the findings.
Example: (like card sorts / novice and expert comparative study)
Barry R. Hill (Lebanon Valley College) realised a need for matching student mental models with experts in his case teachers so has to know that student are understanding the same way teachers are explaining any subject. He used card sort techniques with students and matched the grouping of ideas with the expert sorted ideas. This gave him better picture of how students are understood and interpret the information derived from the lectures.
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