Mental model

Information mapping
Topics and fields
Business decision mapping Data visualization Graphic communication Infographics Information design Knowledge visualization Mental model Morphological analysis Ontology (information science) Schema (psychology) Visual analytics Visual language
Node–link approaches
Argument map Cladistics Cognitive map Concept lattice Concept map Conceptual graph Decision tree Dendrogram Graph drawing Hyperbolic tree Hypertext Issue map Issue tree Layered graph drawing Mind map Object-role modeling Organizational chart Pathfinder network Radial tree Semantic network Sociogram Timeline Topic map Tree structure ZigZag
See also
Design rationale Diagrammatic reasoning Entity–relationship model Geovisualization List of concept- and mind-mapping software Olog Ontology (philosophy) Problem structuring methods Semantic Web Treemapping Wicked problem
v t e

A mental model is an internal representation (model) of external reality: that is, a way of representing reality within one's mind. Such models are hypothesized to play a major role in cognition, reasoning and decision-making. The term for this concept was coined in 1943 by Kenneth Craik, who suggested that the mind constructs "small-scale models" of reality that it uses to anticipate events.

Mental models can help shape behaviour and set an approach to solving problems (similar to a personal algorithm) and doing tasks.

In psychology, the term mental models is sometimes used to refer to mental representations or mental simulation generally. The concepts of schema (psychology) and conceptual models are cognitively adjacent. At other times it is used to refer to § Mental models and reasoning and to the mental model theory of reasoning developed by Philip Johnson-Laird and Ruth M.J. Byrne.