7
Transformation:
Mental Representations
Joseph McNair
Twas
brillig, and the slithy toves
Did
gyre and gimble in the wabe;
The process of personal transformation is greatly facilitated by the use of certain conceptual tools. A conceptual tool is an abstraction or representation of reality. We are constantly “breaking down” our reality to understand it. When we “abstract”, we choose to consider one or more but not all of the properties or characteristics of a person, object or event to attend to others.
For example, the following image is a picture of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
http://www.nemo.nu/ibisportal/0egyptintro/3egypt/3bildsidor/khufupyramid.jpg
Suppose you were asked to consider only the form of the pyramid. What geometrical figure would be the correct answer?
If you said, a “ triangle”, you would be correct. You have “abstracted” out of the picture the form of the pyramid, or a triangle. The drawing above depicting the triangle is a conceptual model.
When the mind considers the form of a pyramid by itself, or the color of its bricks as separate from their size or texture, the act is called abstraction. So, also, is it abstraction when the mind considers color, hardness, virtue, or existence, as separate qualities or properties of the pyramid itself.
When the mind uses symbols to represent something else, this too, is abstraction. The creation of mental imagery to represent real world phenomena, the use of words to represent ideas is all about abstraction.
The use of models is an important part of the process of abstraction. In this essay, there will be an extensive discussion of models as representations of reality, particularly mental models.
According Marieke Heemskerk, Karen Wilson and Mitchell Pavao-Zuckerman (2003), a model is an essential tool for understanding aspects of reality :
Scientists often use models to explore systems and processes they cannot directly manipulate (Jackson et al. 2000). Models can be more or less quantitative, deterministic, abstract, and empirical. They help define questions and concepts more precisely, generate hypotheses, assist in testing these hypotheses, and generate predictions (Turner et al. 2001). Heemskerk, M., K. Wilson, and M. Pavao-Zuckerman. 2003. Conceptual models as tools for communication across disciplines. Conservation Ecology 7(3): 8. [online] URL: http://www.consecol.org/vol7/iss3/art8
Conceptual models are usually devised by teachers, trainers, engineers and designers to explain ideas, concepts, processes and products. They are inscribed, which means they are expressed in symbols, pictures and text. They are usually depicted as diagrams with boxes and arrows that show the main ideas or elements and flows of material, information, and causation that define, for example, a system. The simple conceptual model that follows shows graphically the process of multicultural awareness/ consciousness [MA/C].
Conceptual models are teaching tools. They are inferred, that is, they are drawn [literally] from mental representations said to exist in our minds. Mental representations can be described as
MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS
The mind abstracts by creating mental representations. Martina Angela Sasse (1997) states that mental representations of knowledge can be picture-like or language-like:
Picture-like representations, such as photographs and maps, are analogue, iconic and continuous. Language-like representations, which include natural language and mathematics, are non-analogue, non-iconic, and digital or discrete. Sasse, M.A. 1997. Eliciting and Describing Users’ Models of Computer Systems [online] URL: http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/a.sasse/thesis/chapter03.html
By stating that picture-like mental representations are “analogue”, Sasse means that they bear an analogy or correspond to the person, object or event that they represent. An analogue of a face, for example, should contain those features of a face that make it recognizable as a face e.g. two eyes, a nose, a mouth, etc. An icon is an image or a picture. When picture-like mental representations are described as iconic, it means that they are picture images that represent something else. When they are described as continuous, the image must be considered wholly or holistically as a representation. Let us look at our picture of the Great Pyramid of Giza again.
http://www.nemo.nu/ibisportal/0egyptintro/3egypt/3bildsidor/khufupyramid.jpg
This picture of the Great Pyramid of Giza is an analogue because it preserves (visually) all of the distinctive features of the Great Pyramid. It is iconic because it is a picture of the actual Great Pyramid which it represents. It is continuous because the entire image, not parts of it, represents the Great Pyramid.
Mental representations with language-like characteristics are not analogues. Any correspondence to what is represented is often arbitrary. This means that the connection between the language–like representation is established because some rule or authority says there is a connection.
The phrase, “The Great Pyramid of Giza” is a language-like representation of the Great Pyramid. The components of the sentence are letters of the English alphabet combined into words (symbols of speech sounds) that refer to the same Great Pyramid represented by the picture. If an individual does not understand the English language or cannot read English, then that person will not know that the words “The Great Pyramid of Giza” mean the actual Great Pyramid or that which is visually represented in the foregoing picture.
The picture of the Great Pyramid is an example of a picture-like mental representation; the phrase, “The Great Pyramid of Giza” is a language-like mental representation.
Let’s look at another example of a language-like mental representation. Consider this verse from Lewis Carroll’s famous poem, “The Jabberwocky”:
Twas
brillig, and the slithy toves
Did
gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All
mimsy were the borogoves,
And
the mome raths outgrabe.
http://www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/jabber/jabberwocky.html
What could those words possibly mean? Humpty Dumpty explains:
"… 'Brillig' means four o' clock in the afternoon--the time when you begin broiling things for dinner."
"That'll do very well," said Alice: "and 'slithy'?"
"Well, 'slithy' means 'lithe and slimy,' 'Lithe' is the same as 'active.' You see it's like a portmanteau--there are two meanings packed up into one word."
"I see it now," Alice remarked thoughtfully: "and what are 'toves'?"
"Well, 'toves' are something like badgers--they're something like lizards--and they're something like corkscrews."
"They must be very curious-looking creatures."
"They are that," said Humpty Dumpty: "also they make their nests under sundials--also they live on cheese."
"And what's to 'gyre' and to 'gimble'?"
"To 'gyre' is to go round and round like a gyroscope. To 'gimble' is to make holes like a gimlet."
"And 'the wabe' is the grass-plot round a sun-dial, I suppose?" said Alice, surprised at her own ingenuity.
"Of course it is. It's called 'wabe,' you know, because it goes a long way before it, and long way behind it--"
"And a long way beyond it on each side," Alice added.
"Exactly so. Well then,'mimsy' is 'flimsy and miserable' And a 'borogove' is a thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round--something like a live mop."
"And then 'mome raths'?" said Alice. "I'm afraid I'm giving you a great deal of trouble." "Well, a 'rath' is a sort of green pig: but 'mome' I'm not certain about. I think it's short for 'from home'--meaning that they'd lost their way, you know."
"And what does 'outgrabe' mean?"
"Well, 'outgribing' is something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle: however, you'll hear it done, maybe--down in the wood yonder--and, when you've once heard it, you'll be quite content" Dean, C. 1997, The Jabberwocky [on-line] [URL] http://home.earthlink.net/~lfdean/carroll/jabberwock.html.
As Lewis Carroll aptly demonstrates, the meanings of the words are arbitrary -- they mean what he (or rather, Humpty Dumpty) says they mean. Looking at the four line stanza and the words that make it up, we can see the clear cut differences between a “picture-like” representation and a “language-like representation.
The lines of the poem are therefore not analogues because the words themselves do not “look like” the meanings they represent. They are not iconic because they are not pictures. They are not continuous because each component word, each line has a meaning of its own which must be put together.
According to Phillip Johnson- Laird (1983), there are three (3) kinds of mental representations. These are
Johnson-Laird, 1983 in Sasse, M.A. 1997. Eliciting and Describing Users’ Models of Computer Systems [online] URL: http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/a.sasse/thesis/chapter03.html
Propositional Representations
Propositional representations are language-like representations. They are pieces of information resembling natural language stored in the mind (memory). Propositions represent the world through sequences of symbols. Examples of propositional representations are words, phrases, proverbs, poems, internal chatter or equations, etc. According to Sasse:
[propositional representations]… have been described as the mental echo of the information available in the real world (Manktelow & Jones, 1987), encoded in a verbal format. Thus, a person holding a propositional representation will be able to recall the information contained in the propositional representation verbatim.
Simple propositional representations are either “heard” in the head or “seen” as words or symbols. Propositional representations do not have to preserve the distinctive features and the relationships of the things they represent. They can also be used to represent more than just physical objects, but concepts and ideas as well. Information can be gathered into a mass or a whole and combined according to rules or principles. A lot of things -- ideas, concepts, processes or events -- can be expressed in a very compact representation.
Take, for example, the following equation:
Upon hearing this equation spoken aloud or seeing it in its symbolic form, those of us who have some idea of what it means can call up bits and pieces of information represented by the sound symbols [words, letters, etc.]. What does E = mc2 mean? Well, it means that
How do we know this? Is the “E” in the equation analogous to energy, that is, does it preserve the distinctive qualities of energy? No. “E” represents energy because someone says that it does. The same is true for the other symbols in the equation.
Is the equation iconic? Not really. While it is an image (a gif file), it actually represents a linear array of symbols that are separated into left and right sides and joined by an equal sign – an equation – which represents something else. Is the equation continuous? No. It is discrete, meaning that it is made up of components which have specific meanings.
Consider the following aphorisms:
“ A dog that brings a bone, carries one away!”
“Be careful what you wish for!” “
“All who would win joy must share it. Happiness is a twin!”
“And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.”
An aphorism is a propositional representation. It is a tersely stated “truth” or opinion; a “wise” saying. The words “truth” and “wise” are placed in quotation marks here because whether the aphorism is true or wise depends on who (or how many) agree that it is true or wise. Aphorisms present a lot of information in compact form. For example, what is meant by the first aphorism, “ A dog that brings a bone, carries one away!”:
http://www.kidstacy.com/kidstacy/images/s-dog-and-the-bone.gif
“a dog that brings a bone” represents a person who brings information about someone else -- in other words, a gossip. The meaning of this aphorism is that if you allow an individual to bring you gossip about other people, be assured that he or she will take away gossip about you to share with others.
What do the other three aphorisms mean?
Propositional representations can contain statements of belief or even systems of belief, and can shape the way we think, feel and behave.
Mental Images
Mental images represent the perceivable features of corresponding objects in the real world. What this means is that a mental image of a bird, for example, has all of the features of a real bird as perceived through the senses.
According to Stephen Worchel and Wayne Shebilske (1992), no less than Albert Einstein confessed that he thought in terms of mental images:
In order to solve a problem, he would manipulate and combine images. Then, after solving the problem, he would translate the solution into words…(Worchel and Shebilske, Psychology: Principles and Applications, 1992, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey)
As Einstein asserts, mental images can be manipulated.
http://www.sos.state.ga.us/black_history/img0027.jpg
Close your eyes and try to “picture” what this man would look like if seen as a profile. Were you successful? Now, look again at the picture. Close your eyes and visualize this picture as an 8x10 inch portrait. Can you do this? How about a 16x 20 inch portrait? This time, close your eyes, hold the picture in your “mind’s eye” and then scan it from top to bottom.
Ronald A. Finke (1989) argues that there are five principles of mental imagery. These principles are
Mental images, like all symbols, also often yield unexpected information when subjected to systems of interpretation. The following is an exercise in guided imagery:
Imagine that you are walking along a woodland path in a surrounding forest. What kind of path is it? Is it a broad path or a narrow path? Is it well traveled or grown over? Does it make for easy passage or is it difficult? Feel yourself there. Feel the ground beneath your feet and the wind upon your face. Smell the smells, the flowers and trees. Hear all the sounds of the forest. You are climbing up out of the forest onto a hill. Suddenly as you look down at your feet, you see a key. Pick the key up. Examine it. Note what it looks like, what it is made of, its size, shape and color. Put the key on your person and continue walking on the path. Soon you reach the crest of the hill and begin to descend. As you get to the bottom of the hill you find yourself in a small clearing. In this clearing is a dwelling of some kind. Describe the external features of the dwelling. Is it a house? A castle? A log cabin? A cave? What kind of dwelling is it? What kind of condition is it in? Go inside and describe what you see. How is it appointed? What kinds of furniture, if any, are in there? Is there lots of furniture or is it sparsely furnished?Is it neat? Is it clean? Or is it messy and in shambles? How does it feel to you? Are you uneasy or at home? Now, leave the dwelling and find your way back to the path. Ahead, you can hear and even smell a body of water. Soon you can see it as it crosses your path. What is it? Is it a brook, a pond, a stream, a lake, a river, the sea? Is it shallow or deep? Is the water clear or murky. How will you cross it? Can you ford it? Must you swim? Is there a vessel of some kind to take you across? Or can you walk around it? Describe how you get to the other side. Now, get back on your path. As you walk you see up ahead a barrier of some kind blocking your way. What kind of barrier is it? Describe it. Can you get past it or must you turn back? Either way, you have reached the end of your journey and are right back where you started.
Like much of the imagery stored in your memory, there is meaning in these images that you didn’t know was there. For example, the path you imagined and saw so vividly might represent your path through life or even your spiritual path. The key that you found could be the “key to the kingdom” representing what it takes for you to open the doors of opportunity. The dwelling that you imagined might represent the state and condition of your soul or the state of your mental health. The body of water crossing your path might represent your emotional nature or your attitudes about sex. Finally, the barrier crossing your path could represent your beliefs and attitudes about death.
Like embedded meanings in lines of poetry, meaning put there by the poet that he never intended, information about himself that he never meant to reveal, so is there meaning in our mental imagery.
Consider the Miami skyline:
http://www.jmepartners.com/sys-tmpl/nss-folder/pictures/miami_skyline.jpg
Now try to imagine the skyline of Emerald City in Oz. Can you see it in your “mind’s eye? If you can, the same processes that help you call up the image of the Miami skyline are the ones that enable you to “see” Emerald City.
Let us say that the conceptual model of the starship Enterprise below left is the mental image and the picture of the Enterprise on the right is the real object. According to this third of Finke’s five principles, the parts of the mental image match and are “arranged in space’ just like those of the “real” Enterprise.
Roger N. Shepard and Jacqueline Metzler’s (1971) “Mental rotation task” shows how this principle works. Subjects were shown pairs of drawings of three-dimensional objects and asked whether the members of a pair were identical. The task can be solved physically by rotating one of the objects until they can be viewed from the same perspective. To solve the task mentally, subjects had to perform the rotation mentally. The mental image must be rotated in the same way as the physical object to determine which of the pairs contain identical members. Can you solve this task? Which of the three pairs of three dimensional objects have identical members?
If your answer is A and B, you are correct. C is the different pair because no matter how you rotate one of the members, you cannot find the perspective from which it can be seen as identical.
This principle is similar to the idea discussed above in the Starship Enterprise example, and is part of the more general idea that the mental image is an analogue. The mental image has the same structural features as the perceived object.
Consider the two images.
Images taken from http://mrl.nyu.edu/projects/image-analogies/freud.html
The image on the left is a photograph of a landscape. The image
on the right is an oil painting of the same landscape. Let us say, for the
purposes of illustration, that the photograph is the real object and the
oil painting is the mental image. According to Finke’s fifth
principle, because the structural elements i.e. the sky, the trees and foliage,
the water and the rocks have the same relationships in the real object and
in the mental image –spatial arrangements, same sizes, shapes and colors,
etc., any interpretation of what the real object might mean is the same for
the mental image.
Adapted by McNair , 2003 from http://www.missouri.edu/~kingjw/psy240imagerylects.html
With propositional representations and mental images, the mind can construct mental models. According to Piero Scaruffi (1998-2001):
[Mental] [i]mages are ways to approach models. They represent the perceivable features of the corresponding objects in the real world. Models, images and propositions are functionally and structurally different. Linguistic expressions are first transformed into propositional representations. The semantics of the mental language then creates correspondences between propositional representations and mental models, i.e. propositional representations are interpreted in mental models.
Scaruffi, Piero. 1998-2001. Thinking About Thought [online] URL: http://www.thymos.com/tat/cognitio.html
Mental Models
In 1943, Kenneth Craik suggested that the mind constructs "small-scale models" of reality that it uses to anticipate events. These small-scale models are called mental models.
According to Johnson-Laird (1983):
It is now plausible to suppose that mental models play a central and unifying role in representing objects, states of affairs, sequences of events, the way the world is, and the social and psychological actions of daily life." (p. 397)
Johnson-Laird, et al describe mental models as
“psychological representations of real, hypothetical, or imaginary situations.”
Mental models can be built or constructed from perception, imagination, or from the comprehension of what is said or read. Johnson-Laird, et al continue:
…mental models have a structure that corresponds to the structure of what they represent. They are accordingly akin to architects’ models of buildings, to molecular biologists’ models of complex molecules, and to physicists’ diagrams of particle interactions.
http://svr-www.eng.cam.ac.uk/~ard28/gengoth.jpg
http://scieng.tay.ac.uk/dbrg/images/Image6.gif
http://www.ryerson.ca/~mpapini/images/blast.gif
Sasse summarizes Johnson-Laird’s characteristics of mental models:
In order to understand a real-world phenomenon, a person has to hold what Johnson-Laird (1983) describes as a working model of the phenomenon in his or her mind. Mental models are not imitations of real-world phenomena; they are simpler. They do not correspond completely to what they model – Johnson-Laird argues that adding information beyond a certain level does not increase its usefulness. A mental model which explains all aspects of the phenomenon that a person interacts with is an appropriate one [italics added]. In order to provide explanation, it has to have a similar structure to the phenomenon it represents; it is this similarity in structure which enables the holder of the model to make mental inferences about the phenomenon which hold true in the real world. Sasse, M.A. 1997. Eliciting and Describing Users’ Models of Computer Systems [online] URL: http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/a.sasse/thesis/chapter03.html
Mental models, like mental images can be picture-like. Mental models that are picture-like resemble the people or objects they represent. All of us who own dogs or who have interacted with dogs have come away from the experience with a mental image or a picture of a dog.
http://www.doglogic.com/pupcover.gif http://www.albany. edu/~etones/chihuahua.gif
http://www.mataglap.com/Images/sgng/mutt.jpg http://www.playdog.com/150-1.JPG
A mental image becomes a mental model when it serves the purpose of describing the characteristics of (in this case) of the concept “dog” or all dogs in general; when it helps us explain what dogs are, how they behave, or what we can predict a dog to do in certain situations. The more dogs we experience, come to know, the more we inform our mental model of a dog.
Mental models can also be constructed from the imagination, from stories told to us. The following story taken from Greek mythology speaks of a particular kind of monster, the Chimaera:
The king of Caria, Amisodarus, raised the Chimaera to terrorize the surrounding region. [The]Chimaera’s main activity was to spit flames and devour all living things. The Chimaera made great havoc in Lycia, so that the king, Iobates, sought for some hero to destroy it. At that time there arrived at his court a gallant young warrior, whose name was Bellerophon. He brought letters from Proetus, the son-in-law of Iobates, recommending Bellerophon in the warmest terms as an unconquerable hero, but added at the close a request to his father-in-law to put him to death. The reason was that Proetus was jealous of him, suspecting that his wife Antea looked with too much admiration on the young warrior.
Iobates, on perusing the letters, was puzzled about what to do, not willing to violate the claims of hospitality, yet wishing to oblige his son-in-law. A lucky thought occurred to him -- send Bellerophon to combat with the Chimaera. Bellerophon accepted the proposal, but before proceeding to the combat consulted the soothsayer Polyidus, who advised him to procure if possible the horse Pegasus for the conflict. For this purpose he directed him to pass the night in the temple of Minerva. He did so, and as he slept Minerva came to him and gave him a golden bridle. When he awoke the bridle remained in his hand. Minerva also showed him Pegasus drinking at the well of Pirene, and at sight of the bridle the winged steed came willingly and suffered himself to be taken. Bellerophon mounted him, rose with him into the air, soon found the Chimaera, and killed it with a lump of lead on a spear that he threw into the Chimera’s stomach. http://monsters.monstrous.com/chimera.htm
Without getting into the intrigue of the story (which no doubt calls up other kinds of mental models) let’s talk about the Chimaera. What did this monster look like? The Chimaera is generally described as a fire-breathing creature having the body of a goat, the head of a lion and the tail of a serpent. Other descriptions have characterized the monster with three heads (a lion’s head as the main head, a goat's head sprouted from its back, and a serpent's or Dragon’s head on its tail), but the most popular descriptions tell of the single, fire-breathing head. The following images are examples of how artists have represented the Chimaera.
http://monsters.monstrous.com/chimera.htm
http://www.hedoshan.com/images/chimera.gif
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2002/chimera.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~fuzz2000/images/chimera.jpg
Based on your interpretation of the descriptions given, which image of the Chimaera do you think is the most appropriate?
Johnson-Laird argues that the mind creates mental models of the world and processes them. In the above story, the creation of the mental model of the Chimaera is facilitated by its description in the story. The reader has to draw upon his or her mental images of the lion, goat, snake or dragon and manipulate them, that is, put them together as a new mental image of the Chimaera. The image becomes a mental model when the reader uses it to describe the monster and to explain or predict its behavior.
Johnson-Laird also asserts that mental models are used to solve problems—without the need to use a system of logic. This can be illustrated in the problem of the farmer, the goose, the fox and the grain:
Imagine that you are a farmer with a goose, a fox, and some grain. You have to get across a river with all your belongings. However, you can only take one thing on the boat at a time. You cannot leave the goose with the grain, or he will eat it. You cannot not leave the fox with the goose, or the fox will eat the goose. How can you get all your belongings safely to the other side?
Here is the solution. See if you can “picture” it in your mind.
The several mental images and the rules that govern the way they behave were combined into a mental model of the solution. The problem can be solved by logic e.g. algorithms, etc., but it can also be solved by manipulating mental images or mental models of solution strategies.
Scott McDaniel (2003) explains a mental model in this way:
I often use examples to convey what a mental model is. If I tell them that I recently ordered a steak at a restaurant, they might assume that I was met at the door by a host or hostess, seated, and presented with a menu. They assume these details, and others, that I never actually mentioned because they have a mental model of how restaurants operate. To illustrate the consequences of having a mismatched mental model, I describe a person who goes into a buffet restaurant and waits for someone to take [his] order. The person's mental model of how that restaurant operates doesn't match the actual situation, and he would experience confusion and frustration until he modified his original model to include buffets. McDaniel, S., 2003, What's Your Idea of a Mental Model? [online] URL:
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/whats_your_idea_of_a_mental_model.php
McDaniel proposes that mental models have five (5) key parts. These are
1. An image
2. A script
3. A set of related mental models
4. A controlled vocabulary
5. A set of assumptions
McDaniel, S., 2003, What's Your Idea of a Mental Model? [online] URL:
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/whats_your_idea_of_a_mental_model.php
An Image: As has been shown earlier, mental images are important components of mental models. If the mental model is one that describes and explains a physical object, then it should contain an image or a picture of some kind. The model itself does not have to be an exact replica of the object represented, but should be structurally similar so that meanings and interpretations can be the same from model to real object. Let us consider the following a mental image held about a particular person’s living room.
http://www.acmc.uq.edu.au/~jbanks/psychosis/view2.jpg
This image is a scene and provides a general description of a particular setting. It has a meaning of its own to the one who holds it. When combined with other mental images and perhaps a script, it becomes a part of a mental model. For example, a robbery has taken place in your home but your living room seems untouched. The investigating officer asks you to describe what your living room looked like before the burglary; what was moved or is missing. You can do this by referring to the mental model of your living room.
A Script: Mental models are usually employed to solve problems. Problem solving usually involves a process of some kind, i.e. things to be done to solve the problem. Mental models that are processes contain scripts. A script is a representation of stereotypical knowledge of situations as a sequence of actions and a set of roles held in the memory. The term stereotype used here means the kinds of things that happen and the kinds of things that one has to do in similar situations. When a new situation presents itself, the memory is scanned for a similar situation. Based upon what happened before, we can understand what is happening or anticipate what will happen. For example:
Kathryn is worried. It is 1:30 a.m. and Willie is not home. While it is not unusual for him to be out late, he would normally call by now, let her know where he is and that he is on his way home. He has been acting strange for some time now, finding excuses to get out of the house alone, coming home late with no explanation about where he has been other than working late or “boys night out”,
getting angry and defensive when she questions him. Kathy is worried because she knows this behavior. It has happened to her before with another man.
Kathy recognizes the “situation.” Once the situation is recognized, her script tells her what to do. It tells her what actions are sensible based upon previous experiences and what roles are likely to be played. Her script helps her understand the situation and predicts what will happen.
Related Mental Models. Mental models are composed of other mental models. Consider the following conceptual models of an internal combustion automobile engine:
http://www.scienceall.com/menu/time/image/t18.jpg http://home.delfi.lv/breg/images/fig2.gif
The first conceptual model is a picture rendering a physical image of the engine as it looks to the naked eye. The second model is a diagram of the engine identifying its various parts. Each part of the engine has its own representation; its own mental model. As the engine itself is made up of component parts so is the mental model of the engine made up of component mental models. All mental models can be broken down into component mental models.
Controlled Vocabulary. McDaniel states that each mental model has its own set of definitions and variants:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/your_birmingham/2002/10/images/faces-270.jpg
http://www.lcsnw.org/photos/hispanic_family.jpg
The…[mental]… model of the nuclear family has a set of definitions that include mother, father, and child. Each of these terms has a set of alternates, however... A mother, for example, is the female parent. Other terms used for mother include mom, mama, and ma. McDaniel, S., 2003, What's Your Idea of a Mental Model? [online] URL:
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/whats_your_idea_of_a_mental_model.php
There is vocabulary specific to a particular mental model. Used out of context, these words and definitions could mean something else entirely.
Assumptions. Assumptions are beliefs we hold to be true often with little or no evidence required. For example, when we are driving we assume that most people will obey traffic signals.
When we approach an intersection and the traffic light is green, we proceed through the intersection assuming that the cars to our right and left will stop. Referring to our mental model of an intersection, we know that when we have the green light, the crossing traffic has the red light. If crossing drivers obey the traffic signals, it is safe to proceed through the intersection. Mental models contain assumptions that allow people to predict behavior. There could hundreds of assumptions for a given model.
HOW ARE MENTAL MODELS CONSTRUCTED
Sasse summarizes Johnson-Laird’s theory on how mental models are constructed:
For each new item of incoming information, a search is made to ensure that the proposition is consistent with any earlier information encountered. If an appropriate model can be found to accommodate the proposition, the model will be cued, applied, and perhaps modified. If no appropriate model can be found, the relevant procedures will be employed to construct a mental model from scratch (construction de novo). It is worth emphasizing again that … evaluation of whether a proposition is true or false is conducted in terms of meaning attached to the proposition, not syntactic rules of truth tables used in logic. Sasse, M.A. 1997. Eliciting and Describing Users’ Models of Computer Systems [online] URL: http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/a.sasse/thesis/chapter03.html
Whenever we encounter information that does not refer to information already contained in our model of reality, we search our memory to find similar propositional representations, mental images and/or mental models. If we cannot find an existing mental model, we have to create one. Let us revisit our example of the Chimaera.
The king of Caria, Amisodarus, raised the Chimaera to terrorize the surrounding region. [The]Chimaera’s main activity was to spit flames and devour all living things.
We know from these statements what the Chimaera does. It coerces people with violence. It spits fire and eats them. It frightens them greatly. We also have an idea of what the Chimaera might look like based on descriptions handed down to us from legend -- a fire-breathing creature having the body of a goat, the head of a lion and the tail of a serpent. Searching our memory for the mental image of a lion, a goat and a serpent, we can use these to put together a mental construct fitting the description of the Chimaera. When we add to the construct the set of behaviors described, we have a mental model of the Chimaera.
If we find a mental model that is similar to the new information presented to us, we can adapt it or modify it. For example.
The discovery of Viagra (Sildenafil Citrate) as a treatment for erectile dysfunction, is a wonderful example of serendipity or making a useful discovery by accident. Originally the research team headed by Simon Campbell and David Roberts, at Pfizer, were looking for compounds that lowered blood pressure and reduced chest pains. Twelve years later their research was to lead to a drug for a completely different condition. By combining and recombining chemical compounds and testing them on volunteers, the research team synthesized Sidenafil Citrate or Viagra. Viagra proved ineffective in reducing chest pains, but studies of its side effects yielded startling results among male patients. Volunteers reported side effects like head aches, visual problems, and prolongment of penile erections.
Suppose you are a medical chemist working on a treatment for lowering blood pressure and reducing chest pains. After years of research and clinical trials you have produced a chemical compound that you think will achieve your objective. Your mental model of an antihypertensive and antianginal drug might look like this.
http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/local/projects/s_llewellyn/discovery.htm
Its properties should include lowering blood pressure and reducing chest pains. You find, however, through clinical trials, that it is not effective as an antianginal drug (it does not reduce chest pains or angina). But you do discover that among its side effects is the prolongment of erections in men. Knowing, as a medical chemist, that there is a great demand for drugs that effectively treat erectile dysfunction, you modify your mental model of sildenafil citrate as a treatment for hypertension and heart disease to one that treats erectile disfunction – and you make a fortune!
Mental models are built from propositional representations, mental images and existing mental models. If you don’t have a mental model for new information, you either create a new one or modify an existing one.
PROPERTIES OF MENTAL MODELS
John R. Pisapia adds another wrinkle to the definition of a mental model. He asserts that a mental model is
(Pisapia J. (under contract). Public school administration: Foundations and futures. Merrill McMillan Publishers. 10 chapters in draft stage.)
Let us look at these two ideas. What is a prototype? A prototype is
“ an original type, form, or instance serving as a basis or standard for later stages; an original, full-scale, and usually working model of a new product or new version of an existing product; or an early, typical example.”
Suppose you were suddenly confronted with the news of your second grade child acting out in class. Your father is not only a career educator, but you respect and admire the way he raised you. If you were to ask yourself “What would my father do in this situation”, you would be referring to a mental model that you hold. You would be accessing not only a mental image of your father acting, but his thinking process as well. You would literally see yourself thinking and acting as your father would do in the same situation.
Now, let us look at the second idea. The concept “filter” gives us many interesting definitions to work with. A filter is defined as
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=filter
For this discussion, the last two seem to be most appropriate to explain “filter” in the context of a mental model. Think of the expression “looking at the world through rose colored glasses.” What does this expression mean?
http://www.queermusicheritage.com/FEB2002/Tomcd3.jpg
Literally, it means that when you put on rose-colored glasses everything looks “rosy”. Metaphorically, it means an “ attitude of cheerful optimism, of seeing everything in an attractive, pleasant light…” (Hendrickson, Robert, 1997). A person who looks at the world through an attitude of cheerful optimism sees only the good and the pleasant in that world. The attitude of optimism is the mental model; it is the filter.
http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Graphics/wallpaper/through_a_glass_t.jpg
The apostle Paul in the King James version of the Holy Bible is credited with the expression “ Now we see through the glass darkly, but soon face to face.” This seems to mean that our understanding is obscured by the glass through which we look, but a time will come when we see things as they are. Metaphorically, it means our inability to understand the things that we see or experience in the present changes when our conditions change. The future, a change in conditions, or another “state” will avail us the opportunity to understand things as they really are. In this example, the “glass”, the ‘lens’ through which we look at our world is the mental model, is the filter.
The following properties of mental models have been culled and adapted from several writers who have written on the subject (Johnson-Laird, 1983, Pisapia, Sasse, 1997, McDaniels, 2003). These are
Some older Catholics still suffer from a wave of guilt when they eat fish on Friday. It was hard for them to get use to the idea that fish on Friday is okay after being told all through their childhood and young adulthood that to eat fish of Friday was to go to Hell!
Sarah was exasperated to discover that her third boyfriend in a row turned out to be controlling and abusive. “What is it about me,” she wondered, “that keeps picking the same kind of guy?”
Ms. Williams believed that a good Christian woman just did not attend church without her head being covered. One time she found herself in a situation where she had to enter church without wearing a hat or some kind of head covering and grew so uncomfortable that she could not stay.
Chike, who believes Carlos is a “troublemaker,” will unconsciously interpret some of Carlos’ behaviors as disruptive or even out of control. Xiomara, who believes Carlos is merely a “macho” boy and “full of energy,” may not even notice the behavior that Chike believes to be disruptive.
Lisa, a young European American from Montana, had never seen an African American. All she knew about them was what she had been told by members of her family and a few of her friends. None of this was very flattering. She was told that African Americans were lazy, shiftless and of questionable moral character. They would steal anything that wasn’t nailed down. She was told that they weren’t very smart; that they “fall apart” when posed with rigorous mental challenges, but excel in such activities as singing and dancing. She was warned never to be alone with an African American male because all they thought about was compromising her white womanhood in the very worse possible way. As such her mental models of African Americans inspired fear more than anything else. When she met her first African American, a young woman, she was terrified. She knew that there was no way that she could have any relationship with her. Nothing in this life could change her mind.
Israel occasionally smokes marijuana but is getting increasingly more nervous about this habit. So much so that he researched the laws governing the possession and use of illegal substances. What he found out informed his mental model of being busted for possession of marijuana. In this mental model, he saw himself stopped by the police, who in turn discovered two ounces of marijuana in his glove compartment. He knew from his researches that possession and use of marijuana can be either a felony or a misdemeanor depending on how much of it he has and whether he intends to sell it, is producing it, or is transporting it with intent to sell.
Possession of marijuana with the intent to sell is a felony. Possession and use of marijuana can result in probation, attending classes on the harmful effects of drugs, and performing community service. (ARS 13-3405). There's also a good chance losing driving privileges in addition to having to pay a minimum of $750 in fines. Penalities for using, possessing, selling, or transporting marijuana increase if one has more than two pounds.
http://www.lawforkids.org/QA/substances/substances20.cfm
Norms are widely shared rules that are based on societal values and prescribe appropriate behavior in general as well as in specific situations. In a paper describing women’s involvement in agriculture an economic activity in Sudan and Burkino Faso (West Africa), Michael Kevanne (1998) has this to say:
…norms… directly prescribe and proscribe certain activities for women; they are `activity-regulating.' The effects of activity-regulating social norms may be quite significant. Women may be excluded from certain kinds of jobs or tasks, perhaps the more lucrative ones. Women may be prohibited from exploiting certain specific common-property resources such as wildlife or forests. Women may be denied the right to interact with state officials and secure the rents distributed by official credit, work, and extension programs. Kevanne, M., 1998, Extra-household Norms and Intra-household Bargaining: Gender in Sudan and Burkina Faso [on-line] [URL] http://lsb.scu.edu/~mkevane/gender.pdf.
Norms such as these are based on mental models about a woman’s role in the social and economic life of these societies. These norms are shared by all of the men and a significant number of women. For these norms to change, the mental models of gender roles in these societies must change.
A proposition accepted without proof or evidence as the basis for some further conclusion. http://www.philosophypages.com/dy/a9.htm#assu
When we make a statement that we believe is true, we are stating a proposition. Propositions are expressed in declarative sentences. When propositions are mental representations (held in the mind or memory) they may be a sequence of linguistic (words, phrases, etc.) or even mathematical symbols. We believe the information represented by these symbols to be true. From these propositions, we build mental models
that are analogues -- similar in structure to the things they represent,
that allow us to predict the results of our actions and
that we believe to be true
In order to makes sense of things, we usually have to make assumptions. Assumptions are working hypotheses that we test in the course of our day-to-day existence. Scientific inquiry has provided excellent examples of how assumptions have led ultimately to the discovery of factual information. Consider the following:
An assumption from 19th century involves wave propagation [ the process by which a disturbance, such as the motion of electromagnetic or sound waves, is transmitted through a medium such as air or water.] It was known to early scientists that sound waves require a medium (typically air) for their propagation. Sound is not carried through a vacuum. About 150 years ago it was shown that light consists of waves. It was assumed that light, like other waves such as sound, required a medium for its propagation.
This assumption led to the invention of a hypothetical medium for the propagation of light called the "ether." The ether served only one purpose -- to be for light what air is for sound. Ultimately it was realized that things that can be done with air (compression, for example), could not be done with the ether. Why? It was because the ether did not exist! The ether had only one property-- to make an analogy between the propagation of light and the propagation of sound. Research showed that the initial assumption was incorrect.
www.genesismission.org/educate/scimodule/Cosmogony/CosmogonyPDF/AppendixB.pdf
Core assumptions about the nature of reality give tentative answers to such questions as Who am I? Where Do I Come From? How Did the World Come to Be? Is There A God? Does Good Always Triumph Over Evil? -- among others. The Cherokee address the first three of these questions in their creation story:
Long ago, before there were any people, the earth was a great island floating in a sea of water, suspended by four cords hanging down from the sky vault, which was made of solid rock. It was dark and the animals could not see, so they got the sun and set it in a track to go across the island every day from east to west, just overhead.
The Creator told the animals and plants to stay awake for seven nights. But only a few of the animals were able to, including owls and panthers, and they were rewarded with the power to go about in the dark. Among the plants, only the cedars, pines, spruces, and laurels stayed awake, so they were allowed to remain green year-round and to provide the best medicines. The Creator chided the other trees: "Because you have not endured to the end, you shall lose your hair every winter."
People appeared last, after the animals, the sun, and the plants, but they multiplied so quickly that they threatened to overrun the world. So it was decided that each woman would have only one child a year, and it has been that way ever since.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/8962/creation.html#cherokee
The ideas expressed in this creation story influence the entire worldview of the Cherokee, their reverence for the earth, their high esteem for animals as elder spirits, etc., the order and hierarchy of living things. These ideas make up in part their core assumptions, out of which com their beliefs, values and attitudes.
The relationship of mental models to beliefs, values and attitudes is a direct one. Beliefs values and attitudes are mental models. They shape the way we look at ourselves and our reality. If personal transformation is to take place, then some (if not all) of our mental models must change. If we are to attain multicultural awareness/consciousness then a significant number of our beliefs, values and attitudes must change. The principles governing the change of beliefs, values and attitudes are the same for changing mental models. These will be discussed fully in Essay # 6.
REFERENCES
Finke Ronald: Principles Of Mental Imagery, 1989, MIT Press
Johnson-Laird, P. N. & Wason, P. C., 1970, Insight into a Logical Relation. Quarterly Journal Of Experimental Psychology, 22, 49-61.
Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1983): Mental Models. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pisapia J. (under contract). Public school administration: Foundations and futures. Merrill McMillan Publishers. 10 chapters in draft stage.)
Schank Roger: DYNAMIC MEMORY Cambridge Univ Press, 1982
Worchel, S. and Shebilske, W., Psychology: Principles and Applications, 1992, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
WEB SITES
Cherokee Creation Story [online][URL] http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/8962/creation.html#cherokee
Cosmic Chemistry, AppendixB[online][URL]
www.genesismission.org/educate/scimodule/Cosmogony/CosmogonyPDF/AppendixB.pdf
Dean, C. 1997, The Jabberwocky [on-line] [URL] http://home.earthlink.net/~lfdean/carroll/jabberwock.html.
Dictionary of Philosophy [online][URL] http://www.philosophypages.com/dy/a9.htm#assu
Heemskerk, M., K. Wilson, and M. Pavao-Zuckerman. 2003. Conceptual models as tools for communication across disciplines. Conservation Ecology 7(3): 8. [online] URL: http://www.consecol.org/vol7/iss3/art8
Kevanne, M., 1998, Extra-household Norms and Intra-household Bargaining: Gender in Sudan and Burkina Faso [on-line] [URL] http://lsb.scu.edu/~mkevane/gender.pdf.
Laws for Kids [online][URL] http://www.lawforkids.org/QA/substances/substances20.cfm
Sasse, M.A. 1997. Eliciting and Describing Users’ Models of Computer Systems [online] URL: http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/a.sasse/thesis/chapter03.html
Scaruffi, Piero. 1998-2001. Thinking About Thought [online] URL: http://www.thymos.com/tat/cognitio.html
What can you do with an image? [online][URL] http://www.missouri.edu/~kingjw/psy240imagerylects.html
