Date: Sun, 22 Nov 87 05:08 EST From: fordjm@byuvax.bitnet Subject: Mental Models Summary (long) The following is a summary of the references I have received from the net in response to my request for information on mental models from a cognitive psychology perspective. I appreciate the help and look forward to commenting on these sources as I read them. In some cases more than one person suggested the same source. In such cases I have only included comments from the first person to mention each source. If anyone would like to comment on these references, or has additional comments on research in this area, please contact me. _______ stever@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (Steve Robbins) suggests that the literature on Neurolinguistic Programming might be useful: >For information on the cognitive psych slant of NLP, >I'd recommend "NLP I" by Dilts et al., Meta Publications, 1979. >A book I'm in the middle of is "Meta-cation: Prescriptions for >Some Ailing Educational Processes" by Sid Jacobson, also available >from Meta Publications (Cupertino, CA). META-Cation is written n >a very "casual" style, but it's easy to read and seems to have some >good material. >For information about the technology in general, the "standard" >books are "Frogs into Princes," "Reframing," and "Using Your Brain", >by Bandler and Grinder. The main problem with these books is that >they're all transcripts of training workshops. As such, the material >isn't organized particularly well for presentation through writing. Stephen Smoliar suggests the following: >...Chapters 12 and 13 of Alvin Goldman's EPISTEMOLOGY AND >COGNITION... >..."Mental Muddles" by Lance Rips. It was supposed to be published >in the book THE REPRESENTATION OF KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEF, edited >by Myles Brand and Robert Harnish. I do not know if this book is out >yet. (I have not yet been able to locate the second book.) Robert Virzi writes: >I am interested in mental models of everyday appliances. Things like >VCRs and telephones, stuff like that. In fact, I am about to start a >series of experiments on peoples mental models of their TV/cable/VCR >setups. (This sounds very interesting!--JMF) He suggests: >1986 IEEE Conf. on Systems, Man & Cybernetics has a couple of sessions >on Mental Models. One paper by Gentner and Schumacher and another by >Sebrechts & DuMont seem pretty good. >ACM CHI'83 has one of the better papers I've seen on the topic written >by Halasz and Moran. The look at the effect of mental models on >subjects use of an Reverse Polish Notation calculator. >Harvard U. Press has a book out by Johnson-Laird called Mental models. >I don't have it yet but it looked promising from what I could glean from >reviews. (I mentioned the Johnson-Laird book in my original posting. I have read it and find it to be a refreshing alternative to much of the earlier logic-based explanations of human reasoning.) Rich Sutton supplies: >R.~Sutton \& A.~Barto, ``An adaptive network that constructs and uses >an internal model of its environment," {\it Cognition and Brain Theory >Quarterly}, {\sl 4}, 1981, pp.~217--246. >R.~Sutton \& B.~Pinette, ``The learning of world models by >connectionist networks," {\it Proceedings of the Seventh Annual >Conf.~of the Cognitive Science Society}, 1985, pp.~54--64. "Brad Erlwein Of. (814) 863-4356" suggests: >a good book that you might find helpful is Gardner (1985) The Mind's >New Science. ( I have also read this book and find it enjoyable, but it is more of an historical overview of the field of cognitive science than a research review or integration. The latter is more my interest at present.) munnari!gitte%humsun.@husc6.BITNET (Gitte Lingarrd) responds: >Rouse, W.B., and Morris, N.M. (1986). On Looking Into the Black Box: >Prospects and Limits in the Search for Mental Models, Psychological >Bulletin, 100, (3), 349-363. > >Lindgaard, G. (1987). Who Needs What Information About Computer Systems: >Some Notes on Mental Models, Metaphpors and Expertise, Customer Services >and Systems Branch Paper No. 126, Telecom Australia Research Laboratories, >Clayton, Australia. > >Copies of the latter may be obtained from me if wanted. Bob Weissman writes: >Suggest you pick up a copy of ``The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction'' >by Card, Moran, and Newell. Aside from being a wonderful book (probably the >definitive work in its field), it has an extensive bibliography. >Published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Hillsdale, NJ., 1983. >ISBN 0-89859-243-7 lambert@cod.nosc.mil (David Lambert) responds: >Personnel and Training Research Programs >Office of Naval Research (Code 1142 PT) (Dr. Susan Chipman (202) 696-4318 ) >Arlington, VA 22217-5000 >has been funding work in mental models. One recent report funded by them, >which contains references and a distribution list, is: > >Jeremy Roschelle and James G. Greeno, Mental Models in Expert Physics >Reasoning; University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; Report No. GK-2, >July 1987. Jane Malin comments: >Dedre Gentner gave an outstanding invited survey at AAAI-87 on >mental models and >analogy. Hopefully some written version would be available soon. Thad.Polk@centro.soar.cs.cmu.edu (Thad Polk) responds: >I'm currently doing research in the area of mental models (of the >Johnson-Laird variety). Specifically, I'm trying to revise and implement >his theory of syllogisms within Soar (Laird, Newell, & Rosenbloom, AI >Journal Sept. 1987). He recommends the following references: >A paper by Johnson-Laird & Bruno Bara that appears in Cognition, 16 >(1984) 1-61. >Revlin, R. & Mayer, R., Human Reasoning, V.H. Winston & Sons, >Washington D.C., 1978. >Falmagne, R. (ed.), Reasoning: Representation and Process, Lawrence >Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale N.J., 1975. >A paper by Robert Inder in "Artificial Intelligence and its Applications" >by A.G. Cohn and J.R. Thomas, John Wiley & Sons, 1986. meulen@sunybcs.BITNET (Alice ter Meulen) suggests: >E. Traugott, A. ter Meulen, C. Ferguson and J. Reilly, (eds.) >On Conditionals >Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (Engl.) 1986. which contains a chapter by Johnson-Laird entitled 'Conditionals and mental models' GA3182@SIUCVMB (John Dinsmore) comments: >There seem to be two currents of activity in research in mental models: > 1. work on the contents of the models, i.e., what knowledge they contain. > This includes work in naive physics and is the main thrust of the > Gentner and Stevens book. > 2. work on general mechanisms of knowledge representation and inference. > This is the thrust of Johnson-Laird's work. >I'm not sure where your interests lie, but I can offer two references con- >cerning the second current: > > John Dinsmore. 1987. Mental Spaces from a Functional Perspective. > Cognitive Science 11: 1-21. > Gille Fauconnier. 1985. Mental Spaces. MIT/Bradford. _________ Once again, thanks to all. I will communicate more to the net on this topic as it seems appropriate. John M. Ford fordjm@byuvax.bitnet (*Not* the "John M. Ford" that writes science fiction.)