The Construction of “Mental Models”: Its Essence and Use in Various Fields of Psychology

Abstract

Introduction. Mental models are a scientific psychological construct, which means that people create models of the external world in their minds and operate them to plan their activities. Today, mental models have found application in various fields: explaining the principles of human thinking and solving logical problems, creating models about time, sets, causes and effects, as well as in the field of learning, social relations, teamwork. However, in Russian, the subject of the study of mental models is practically not presented.Purpose. To examine works devoted to the study of mental models in various fields of psychology.Mental models in the field of thinking process research. A leading expert in the field of human thinking mechanisms P. N. Johnson-Laird put forward and substantiated idea, that in the process of reasoning, people actively create mental models that accompany logical operations and can influence them. Mental models are iconic, reflecting the meaning of objects of the external world, are deployed in a sequence corresponding to external events, and reflect external operations schematically.Mental models in learning. Mental models can be useful tools for constructing the educational process. Understanding and competent use of the natural mechanisms of the psyche of students can improve the process of modeling their knowledge of the world around them.Mental models in socio-psychological processes. The interaction of an individual with other people generates the process of forming their reflections in the internal space, creating models of behavior and possible reactions of others. In team interaction, an important factor in the effectiveness and viability of the team is the presence of common (team) mental models.Discussion. The use of the concept of mental models in various fields and a large number of conceptual and empirical works on this topic may indicate the universality of the phenomenon of models. Mental models as an explanatory principle are built into existing theories and enrich them.