Complete thesis - Murdoch University

While behaviourism and cognitivism are different theories, they share some common groundin their adherence to an objectivist epistemology.Cognitivist theories of representation (such as mental models and schemata) have influencedlearning theory in a variety of ways, including the focus on information mapping as a meansof imposing structure on knowledge (Winn and Snyder, 1996).Figure 3.2: Model-making in learning (Norman, 1983)Both constructivist and cognitivist theory assert that internal, mental models and schemataare utilised to interpret and incorporate experience. As Figure 3.2 illustrates, the considerationof mental models within the learning process requires consideration of the:target system – the system the person is learning or usingconceptual model – invented by teachers, designers, scientists, engineers to provide anappropriate representation of the target system (either asserted or perceived to beaccurate, consistent and complete)the user’s mental model of the target system, constrained by technical background, experienceand cognitive stateconceptualisation – the model of the user’s mental model.(Norman, 1983)In addition, there has been much discussion on the impact of external knowledge representations(eg diagrams, text, numbers and abstract systems of symbols) on the processes oflearning, discovery and reasoning. As an example, research into image encoding has providedevidence that128