CS373 - Mental Models
Introduction to Developing and Using Mental Models
What is a Mental Model?
A mental model is a collection of entities and the relationships between those entities. A mental model helps us understand systems, communities and other environments with dynamic behavior. A good mental model is typically accurate but not too precise, exposing important characteristics that influence or are impacted by the dynamics of the environment.
Why is a Mental Model Important?
When we work in technical fields, we often acquire implicit mental models that we use to understand, gain insight, and make decisions. Making these mental models explicit, by building diagrams or other visual constructs, we can name, explore, and refine the entities and relationships of our mental models.
A documented mental model allows us to communicate our thoughts with others, further refine our ideas, and gain insight into future trends. One or more documented mental models provide the foundation for decision-making and planning for the future.
Resources for Developing Mental Models
Examples
- The E4S-SDK Software Stack from this E4S Overview presentation from the Getting Ready for E4S for Industry and Agencies Workshop.
- Research Software Science from the IEEE CiSE article Research Software Science: Expanding the Impact of Research Software Engineering.
Assignment
As part of your Foundations assignment, you will include at least a “big picture” mental model diagram that visually describes your project. You will continue to evolve this diagram and create additional diagrams that illustrate the key mental models related to your topic.