MENTAL MODELS CONCEPTS FOR SYSTEM DYNAMICS RESEARCH

Although ''mental models'' are of central importance to system dynamic s research and practice, the field has yet to develop an unambiguous a nd agreed upon definition of them, To begin to address this problem, e xisting definitions and descriptions of mental models in system dynami cs and several literatures related to cognitive science were reviewed and compared. Available definitions were found to be overly brief, gen eral, and vague, and different authors were found to markedly disagree on the basic characteristics of mental models, Based on this review, we concluded that in order to reduce the amount of confusion in the li terature, the mental models concept should be ''unbundled'' and the te rm ''mental models'' should be used more narrowly, To initiate a dialo gue through which the System dynamics community might achieve a shared understanding of mental models, we propose a new definition of ''ment al models of dynamic systems'' accompanied by an on extended annotatio n that explains the definitional choices made and suggests terms for o ther cognitive structures left undefined by narrowing the mental model concept. Suggestions for future research that could improve the field 's ability to further define mental models are discussed. (C) 1998 Joh n Wiley & Sons, Ltd.