Mental Models

 

Mental Models are map of concepts related to a topic that can be listed and rated by participants on how closely each concept relates to another one. These ratings can then be fed through a program like Pathfinder in order to generate a map of that participant's mental model.

 

These maps can be useful in looking at differences between different users' knowledge structures about certain tasks and topics. They have been used successfully in examining learning complex tasks such as a video game in studies like Day, Arthur Jr. and Gettman (2001). Studies such as that one compare participants' mental models to those of an expert's to look at comparisons between the two (Burkhardt, Detienne, Wiedenbeck, 1997). In that way, mental models can be extremely useful when it comes to looking at how different users approach different topics.

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Burkhardt, J. M., Détienne, F., & Wiedenbeck, S. (1997). Mental representations constructed by experts and novices in object-oriented program comprehension. In Human-Computer Interaction INTERACT’97 (pp. 339-346). Springer, Boston, MA.

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Day, E. A., Arthur Jr, W., & Gettman, D. (2001). Knowledge structures and the acquisition of a complex skill. Journal of applied psychology, 86(5), 1022.

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