Mental Models

How can your mental models about your world both assist and limit your perceptions when you meet a person for the first time?

Mental models are the representations of people’s thoughts about what is happening in the real world. It determines how we make sense of the world. A mental model represents the surrounding world and determines how various parts of the world relate with how a person perceives his/her actions and their consequences. It is an internal representation of an external reality. It helps in shaping human behaviour and plays a key role in problem solving and decision making. According to Senge (2006), new insights may also fail because they often conflict what the mental models perceive of how the world works.

Human beings may have images in their minds which limit them from acting and thinking in appropriate ways. Therefore, mental models about my world may assist and limit my perceptions when I meet a person for the first time because the mental model gives me a symbol of what the person looks like although in reality he may or may not look like what my mental model made me to perceive. Before meeting the person, I just carry his/her model in my mind, but I may meet a different person. This is the limitation of the mental model. However, my mental model may assist in my perceptions about the new person by giving me the right representation of that person when I meet him for the first time, so that I can correctly know the kind of person I am meeting.

One of the most important aspects of mental models is that they are active (Byrne, 2005). This means that they shape how human beings behave. When meeting someone for the first time, my mental models will first give me a certain impression that will lead me to behave in a certain manner towards him. For instance, if the mental model creates an image of an older person I will behave respectfully towards him. In this case, the mental models not only determine how we make sense of the world but also how we act in certain circumstances. Human beings usually act congruently with their mental models. Therefore, if I meet someone for the first time, my perceptions of him/her will be congruent with my mental model – the representation of that person.

According to Senge, mental models can be simple or complex. Simple mental models lead to simple perceptions such as “the new person is trustworthy” or “the new person is untrustworthy”, while complex mental models lead to complex perceptions such as my assumptions why the new person interacts with people the way he does. If my mental models lead me to perceive that the new person is untrustworthy, I will try to hide my secrets and not entrust him with my crucial undertakings. However, if my mental models lead me to think that the person is trustworthy I will talk openly about my plans and secrets. Furthermore, my mental models may lead me to perceive that the new person has bad intentions or motives against me. This will allow me to approach the person carefully for the first time.

My mental models my also limit my perceptions of the person I am intending to meet for the first time. This is because the mental models may misrepresent the real character of the person I am going to meet (Groesser  & Schaffernicht, 2012). For example, my mental models may lead me to perceive the person I am going to meet as a trustworthy person but in reality he is untrustworthy. This will lead me to behave inappropriately and perhaps end up being coned. Mental models affect what we see; hence affecting our perceptions and our behaviours (Ford & Sterman, 1999). Two people may see the same thing but describe it differently depending on their perception. If I meet a new person for the first time, I may describe him differently from how other people describe him. How he really is will depend on my description. My mental model can create perceptions in my mind that describe the new person as trustworthy, but the society actually sees him as untrustworthy. In this case, my mental models have limited my perceptions of someone when I meet him for the first time.

According to Senge (2004), two people may receive the same sensory data but produce different mental images because they picked different details; hence they perceive things differently. When I meet someone for the first time, I may pick up a different face and create an image of an angry person when in fact he was happy. This is in line with the suggestion by scientists that people observe things selectively. In this case, mental models shape perceptions by picking up images of something and interpreting them to produce perception. The perception will therefore depend on the image that the mind has picked. Mental models also apply in objective observation such as science, because what people measure to get objective results depend on the representations of the things to be measured. For example, if I was to measure the length or weight of the person I met for the first time, I would first make assumptions based on what I see. This creates a perception about the height of that person which may be true or false.

One of the principles of mental models is axioms or fundamental assumptions. In this case, mental models are distinguished through assumptions about what is happening around the world. When I meet someone for the first time, basic assumptions will enable my mental models to come up with an image of him. For instance, the assumption that someone with a closed mouth and wrinkled face is angry will lead me to create an image of an angry person in my mind. If the person starts smiling, my mental models may rely on the assumption that people may fake smiles to hide their anger. In this case, my perception of that person will remain to be that of an angry person. In this case, assumptions play an important role in determining the images that our mental models create; hence creating perceptions about something.

Another principle of mental models is possibility. Mental models always work on possibilities. The mental models also construct perceptions based on a given possibility. For instance, when I meet someone for the first time, my mental models will create or limit perceptions based on the possibility that the person I am meeting can be trustworthy or untrustworthy. In this case, my mental models capture all common ways in which the possibility may occur. My mental models may therefore enhance perception by creating an image of the true possibility or limit perception by capturing the false ways of representing the possibility.

Given all the possibilities of occurrence, the mental model creates an image in the mind that reflects each possibility. Based on the details of the object, the mind then creates perception of the true possibility. My perception of the person I meet for the first time will only be valid if it applies in all possibilities. Senge (2004) suggests that certain factors including age and memory may influence perceptions created by mental models.

Another principle of mental models is the principle of truth. Each possibility in a given scenario has elements of truth based on the proposition. For instance, the possibility of the person I am meeting for the first time being untrustworthy is true if the mental models create an image of untrustworthiness. This leads to the perception that the person I am meeting for the first time is untrustworthy. However, mental models may represent something false temporarily as true. This limits my perception of the new person. For example, in a situation of counterfactual thinking or counterarguments, the mental models may create an image of what is different from the central idea of a given proposition. This leads to the perception of a counterargument that differs from the central idea of the proposition.

This may apply in situation of problem solving or decision making to select the best course of action or solution from a given set of alternatives. From mental models, I may reject an opinion of the person I meet if I get a counterargument, counterfactual thought, or a counterexample. For example, if my mental model creates an image of someone who treats me happily, and someone plays a video of him speaking angrily about me, the mental models will reject the initial image and create a new image that will enhance a true perception about that person.

In conclusion, it is clear that my mental models about the world both assist and limit my perceptions when I meet a person for the first time by creating either the true or false images of the person from which I then form perceptions about him. These perceptions are based on various assumptions, possibilities, truth, and counterfactual thoughts and counterarguments. These principles determine how my mental models about the world will assist and limit my perceptions about the person I am meeting for the first time.

 

References

Byrne, RMJ 2005, The Rational Imagination: How People Create Counterfactual Alternatives to   Reality. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. Accessed September 2, 2014.

Ford, DN & Sterman, JD 1999, “Expert knowledge elicitation to improve formal   and mental      models.” System Dynamics Review, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 309-340. Accessed September 11, 2014

Groesser, SN & Schaffernicht, M 2012, “Mental Models of Dynamic Systems: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead.” System Dynamics Review, 28, no. 1, pp. 46-68.Accessed September 2, 2014.

Johnson-Laird, P.N. and Byrne, RMJ 2002, Conditionals: a theory of meaning, inference, and pragmatics. Psychol. Rev. 109, 646–678 Accessed September 2, 2014.

Senge, PM 2007, “Mental models.” Strategy & Leadership, vol. 20, no. 2, pp.4-44.

Senge, P 2006, The fifth discipline: the art and practice of learning organisations,   Doubleday/Currency, New York.

 

 

 

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B. Economics & Finance, B/ED, Writer, Educator with experience of 12 years in research and writing.

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