Psychological foundation for system thinking

[Kai Berendes]

Dear SD-Community,

we are looking at psychological foundation for system thinking. Within
system thinking the notion of mental models is used (for example Senge 1990,
Chapter 10). The notion of mental models is also used in the psychological
literature. One author is P.N. Johnson-Loird. He has published the titels:

-Mental models, 1983 Cambridge Havard University Press
-The computer and the mind, 1988 Cambridge Havard University Press

Has somebody worked about this relation? Are there links which can help to
explain learning effects?

Thank you in advance!
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Kai Berendes
Universitaet Mainz
Lehrstuhl fuer Wirtschaftspaedagogik
Jakob-Welder-Weg 9
55099 Mainz

Tel.: 06131-39 3738
e-mail: kaib@chaos.bwl.uni-mainz.de

[George Richardson]

A correspondent asked about "mental models" in psychology:

In the Proceedings of the System Dynamics Conference at Stirling,
Scotland (1994) we have a paper that talks about mental models and has a
pretty good bibliography:

G.P. Richardson, D.F. Andersen, T.A. Maxwell, & T.R Stewart. 1994.
Foundations of Mental Model Research. Proceedings of the System Dynamics
Conference. Albany, NY: System Dynamics Society.

The term "mental model" has also popped up in psych literature, but at the
moment I am unsure of the references. Maybe the paper contains enough of
a start.

...GPR

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George P. Richardson G.P.Richardson@Albany.edu
Professor of public administration, public policy & information science
Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy Phone: 518-442-3859
University at Albany - SUNY, Albany, NY 12222 Fax: 518-442-3398
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[Mike McMillan]

For those of you interested in the background of mental models, the
following book is a very good reference:

Induction: Processes of Inference, Learning, and Discovery
by John H. Holland, Keith J. Holyoak, Richard E. Nisbett, and Paul R.
Thagard
Paperback ISBN: 0-262-58096-9

This book is written by four leading scientists in cognitive science.
Holland is the creator or genetic algorithms, Holyoak and Nisbett are
leading cognitive psychologists, and Thagard is a philosopher who has
done work in rule-based scientific reasoning and connectionist modeling.

The book has several chapters that relate directly to mental modeling,
including Chapter 2, Rule-based Mental Models. There is also a chapter
on modeling the physical and social worlds.

Hope this helps.

Mike McMillan
MBA Student, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
mmcm@swbell.net

[Jim Hines]

Concerning mental models.

The area of symbolic anthropology focuses on what we would call mental
models. (They call it "world view"). A classic is Clifford Geertz
"The Interpretation of Cultures".

Jim Hines
LeapTec and MIT
JimHines@Interserv.Com