Mental Model | PureCognition

Posts tagged: Mental model

The Origin of Thought

In my previous post, I explained how people have mental models of the world around them. These models have “moving parts” that can be manipulated such that rules are followed and truth is preserved. This manipulation can be called reasoning. Where do these models and their symbol-systems come from?

Simply put, they come from experience. In developmental psychology there is something called the naive sciences. Young children have not been formally introduced to science, but that doesn’t stop them from being scientists. Indeed, a toddler has an understanding of physics and mathematics even though they have not been formally taught these. Children’s experiences in the world consist of tiny informal experiments. They learn the laws of gravity, friction, and momentum simply by living in a world where these things act upon both them and the objects that they come into contact with. Naive science is the science that we learn from experience before we are formally taught it. This is where our mental models and symbol systems begin to form. We internalize the things we externally experience. We then use this to act in a way that achieves desired outcomes that our mental models predict.

This is the beginning of abstract thought and reasoning. Next I’ll discuss how we offset thought onto our environment in order to assist with constraints put on our working memory. Trust me, I’m going somewhere.

The Components of Thought (purecognition.com)
Culture in Development: The Importance of Climbing Up the Slide (3quarksdaily.com)
A layman’s guide to Time Travel – Part 1 or why Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity is a Trojan Horse. (talatfakhri.com)
More Thoughts on Trust and Obedience (palamas.info)

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Tags: Cognition, Developmental psychology, Friction, Gravitation, Mathematics, Mental model, Philosophy, Physics, Reasoning, Working memory

Cognition, Philosophy | Nathan | November 6, 2008 12:34 am | Comments (1)

The Components of Thought

It’s been a while since I formally studied cognition, and I haven’t kept up the reading as well as I should have. It doesn’t help, of course, that my profession requires a lot of investment in studying within it. However, I want to try to help you understand why software development is so meaningful to me…a lover of the study of human cognition.

How do you think about things? How do you percieve the world around you? There is a theory out there that says that you model the world around you mentally. These models are usually called mental models. They don’t have to manifest themselves as physical models do. They are not constrained by space or time. And, only you, can truly understand how you model the world around you. That doesn’t, however, prevent Cognitive Science from trying to take a glimpse.

Most biological and cognitive theoretical frameworks come down to evolution. The question is asked, “How does this trait either keep you from getting killed or assist you in procreating?” The reason for this is that random mutations that lead to either not being killed or procreating a lot before you die are most likely the ones being selected for as humans evolved. This is because those that have an advantageous mutation are more likely to live longer and procreate more. Their progeny are also more likely to have the same mutation which will give them the same advantages. This, by the way, is of course theory and not shared by everyone. I’m mentioning it here for context.

Let’s get back to mental models. What are they made out of? Another theory is that they are based on abstract symbols systems. A symbol system is a system made up of symbols along with the rules for manipulating those symbols. These rules amount to affordances and constraints. Affordance are what you can do, and constraints are what you can’t. This might be difficult to visualize. So, let’s concretize it a bit. Mathematics uses a symbol system. Think about algebra.

1 + x = 3

In order to find out what x is you have to manipulate the symbols.

1 + x – 1 = 3 -1

Doing this leads to the following.

x = 2

As long as the left and right side of the equals sign are balanced you are within the constraints of the symbol system.

What about this symbol system makes it useful? As long as each manipulation of it is within its constraints, it preserves truth. In other words, each manipulation of it gives us an accurate picture of the situation. And, mathematics models reality.

Now let’s go back to the mind. If we have an accurate picture of the world around us what advantage does that give us? Think of it this way, what could an accurate understanding of physics give us if we are pondering walking in front of a moving automobile or off the side of a building? If the symbol-system guiding our mental model of the situation preserves truth, it preserves our life. I can reason that the automobile will hit me and kill me or that I will hit the ground and be killed. Reasoning, it can be said, is simply a manipulation of a mental model based on a symbol-system. If that symbol-system preserves truth then the reasoning is accurate.

So, what I have tried to establish above is that people have mental models of the world around them. These mental models are made up of symbol systems whose manipulations must be guided by rules that preserve truth in order for them to live (and procreate). They use these models to solve problems and guide their behavior.

Next I’ll discuss how these models are formed.