Complete thesis - Murdoch University

egarding new information. Mental models are proposed as the basic structure of cognition(Johnson-Laird, 1983).Both cognitive and constructivist theory assert that internal, mental models and schemataare used to interpret and incorporate experience. While there are many descriptions of whata schema is, all concur on the following characteristics:• it is an organised structure that resides in memory and in aggregate with all otherschemata contains the sum of our knowledge of the world• it exists at a higher level of abstraction than our immediate experiences of the world– recall or recognition allows the placeholders within a schema to be instantiated asrequired• it contains concepts linked together in propositions – this network enables relationshipsto determine schema structure• it is dynamic, amenable to change by general experience or through instruction• it provides a context for interpreting new knowledge as well as a structure to hold it.(Winn and Snyder, 1996)A schema provides a context that affects the interpretation of new experiences within anindividual’s mental model. After Norman (1983), factors that apply to mental modellinginclude:belief system – a person’s mental model reflects their beliefs about the physical system,acquired through observation, instruction or inference. Thus a conceptual model of themental model should contain a model of the relevant parts of the person’s belief systemobservability – there should be a correspondence between the parameters and states ofthe mental model that are accessible to the person and the aspects and states of thephysical system that the person can observepredictive power – the purpose of the mental model is to enable the person to anticipateand understand the behaviour of the physical system. The model must have predictivepowers, either by applying rules of inference or by procedural derivation. The implicationof this is that the conceptual mental model must also include a model of therelevant human information processing and knowledge structures that make it possiblefor the model to be run mentally.108