Mental Models & Identity LO20964

Winfried Dressler (winfried.dressler@voith.de)
Mon, 22 Mar 1999 18:50:20 +0100

Replying to LO20908 --

Jorge asked:

>Not wanting to rekindle a sometimes rancorous discussion (as opposed to
>dialogue) on the Complexity list, never-the-less let me say that there are
>a few of us out here who have yet to purchase the "mental model."

It's mental models that determine whether one purchase the "mental model"
or not. And it's mental models that makes someone to try to sell it.

>I promise not to belabour this important question, but if you are a
>proponent of "modelling" and specifically "mental models" please share
>what you mean by these terms/phrases.

Mental Models is a somewhat cold expression for what most dramas and
novels are about. If you are in a context of rancorous discussions, it may
be better not to try to explain by means of ladder of inference, induction
of action and the question of how does the world come into the brain.

Take for example Romeo and Julia. It was the heated character of Romeo
that didn't allow him to take the time to read the letter, that explained,
that Julia was not dead. So he saw the seemingly dead Julia and he took
what he saw for reality. If he would just have had a little bit more
control, it could have become a happy end. Happy end of what? It wouldn't
have been the love it was!

So again, if you want to learn about mental models, don't waste too much
time in finding a definition that is sufficiently operable to found
scientific research on it, but go directly to drama and novels and learn
how mental models also direct your life and what you can do about it.

Liebe Gruesse,

Winfried

-- 

"Winfried Dressler" <winfried.dressler@voith.de>

Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>