Characteristic of Mental Model

Mental model is generally:

• found on hardly qualifiable, impugnable, obscure, or incomplete facts
• Flexibility - is considerably variable in positive as well as in negative sense
• effects as information filter - causes selective perception , perception of us only selected parts of information
• compared with the complexities surrounding the world is very limited and even when the model is extensive and in accordance with a certain reality in the derivation of logical consequences of it we are very limited. We must take into account such as restrictions on working memory - ie. well-known rule on the maximum number of elements that we are suddenly able to remember, gestaltismus or failure of the principles of logic, etc.
• source of information, which can not find anywhere else are available at any time and can be used, if other routes are possible, which is linked with the fact that it is not always clearly understood by the other and the process of interpretation can be interpreted in different ways

(reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_models)

Mental model

A mental model is a kind of internal symbol or representation of external reality, hypothesized to play a major role in cognition and decision-making. Once formed, mental models may replace carefully considered analysis as a means of conserving time and energy.

A simple example is the mental model of a wild animal as dangerous: upon encountering a raccoon or a snake, one who holds this model will likely retreat from the animal as if by reflex. Retreat is the result of the application of the mental model, and would probably not be the immediate reaction of one whose mental model of wild animals was formed solely from experience with similar stuffed toy animals, or who had not yet formed any mental models about wild raccoons or snakes.

According to the theory of mental model we are saving all perceived stimulations and observations to the memory in the form of model , which is designed on the basis sensual information and is combined with already saved informations. Prof. Jay Wright Forrester defined mental model as: "The image of the world around us, which carry in our head, is just a model. Nobody in his head imagin all over the world, government or country. He has only selected concepts and relationships between them and those used to represent the real system.

( Reference: Georges-Henri Luquet (2001). Children's Drawings)