Definition
Mental models are described as internal representation of the external world
- they mimic the causal structure of real world to guide the behavior
- they at the basis of the decision-making faculty
- our models of the world get richer with experience, which enables more true-to-life simulations, and therefore better decisions
- more detailed mental models are not necessarily more useful, and the amount of accuracy needed to make good predictions depends on one’s goals
How a mental model is built
- users develop a mental model as a result of interacting with the user interface
- mental models are formed from observable experience linking causes and effects, and this leads to expectations and predictions of phenomena