The Mental Model As A Medium To Influence And Direct Business Discourse

Abstract

The paper aims to analyze the reproduction of mental models in business communication, highlighting the sociocognitive aspect of discourse both on personal and social levels. Discourse is a complex cognitive activity, which, according to some researchers (Graesser, Millis, van Dijk and Kintsch), comprises 5 levels; 1. surface code (words and syntax), 2. text base (semantic representation of the text), 3. situation model (all explicit and implicit factors about discourse), 4. genre and rhetorical structure (narration, description, argumentation, etc. and corresponding rhetorical structures) and 5. pragmatic communication (setting, time, place, social status of the participants, etc.). Discourse is comprehended and activated in accordance with external and internal factors inextricably intertwined in one particular situation. The social dimension of discourse in conjunction with cognitive processes hugely contributes to the formation of mental models that can affect the course of any interaction. Mental models are subjective representations based on personal cognitive processes. The cognitive processes in one’s mind (thinking, perceiving, understanding, feeling) create mental models, which are underpinned by the empirical data that one has in his mind or by the acquired knowledge that can be later utilized in various situational discourses.