Language
Country/Area
No result found
The History of Mental Models: How Kenneth Craik Changed Psychology
Mental models are humans' internal representations of external reality, representing the way we understand and predict the world in our minds. The concept was first proposed by Kenneth Craik in 1943, who argued that mental models allow us to predict how events will unfold in the form of "small models." This important theory not only influenced the development of psychology, but also occupies a central position in the processes of decision-making, reasoning and problem solving.
Creek argues that mental models play a major role in cognition, reasoning, and decision-making.
In his work The Nature of Explanation, Craik highlights the term "mental model" as the key to constructing internal cognition. He believed that people do not fully reproduce all of external reality in their minds, but rather represent this real system based on selected concepts and their relationships to each other. This view prompted many subsequent psychologists to conduct in-depth research on how mental models affect human cognitive processes.
Mental Models and Their History
In the history of mental models, in addition to Craik, there are many scholars who have had a profound influence on this theory. For example, in 1927, George Henry Luckett wrote in The Child's Drawing that children construct internal models, an idea that influenced the research of child psychologist Jean Piaget. In addition, Philip John-Liard's book Mental Models, published in 1983, further developed this theory, proposing that mental models are a cognitive science exploration of language, reasoning, and consciousness.
Mental models depend on perception, imagination, or conversational understanding, which makes them, like an architect's model or a physicist's diagram, structurally similar to the situations they represent.
The relationship between mental models and reasoning
Mental models are closely related to reasoning, and the theory is that reasoning relies on these models rather than logical forms. John-Liard and his colleagues proposed that the process of reasoning is actually based on mental models that people construct, rather than general logical rules.
These mental models provide a basis for people to draw conclusions, and when a conclusion holds true across all possible models, people will consider the conclusion to be valid. A reasoner's thought process is influenced by many factors, including age and the capacity of his working memory.
Criticisms and Controversies of Mental Models
Although the theory of mental models has gained widespread support in psychology and related fields, its validity remains controversial. Some scholars believe that human reasoning tends to rely more on formal logic or probabilistic guidelines than on simple mental models. These views have sparked vigorous debate in the scientific community and promoted empirical comparisons of different theories of reasoning.
The scientific debate continues, and the question of whether human reasoning is based on mental models or on formal logic requires further study.
Mental Models and System Dynamics
In the context of system dynamics, mental models have broader applications. Scholars such as S.N. Groesser and M. Schaffernicht have pointed out that mental models can be used to depict the dynamic structure within a system. These models are usually expressed in the form of cause-and-effect diagrams, system structure diagrams, and inventory flow diagrams.
These methods not only help to depict the operation of dynamic systems, but also assist people in making collaborative decisions and further deepen their understanding of the operation of the system. With the advancement of science and technology, more and more tools are being developed that can demonstrate the internal logic of even complex dynamic systems, which has important application value in social science research.
Changes in mental models during learning
The process of changing mental models is divided into single-loop learning and double-loop learning. Single-loop learning typically occurs when people change their decisions after acquiring new information, without changing their ingrained mental models. Relatively speaking, double-loop learning is a deeper change that requires people to rethink and adjust their mental models to adapt to new environments and challenges.
Single-loop learning provides convenience, but double-loop learning can bring about long-term and profound changes, reshaping our understanding of the world.
In summary, mental models, as an internal thinking tool, undoubtedly play a vital role in our cognition, behavior, and decision-making processes. Craik's theory opened up new research directions for scholars, but the use and understanding of mental models is still evolving. Have you ever thought about how mental models influence your everyday decisions and behaviors?
