Abstract
Mental models are internal representations that support reasoning about discourse and world states — Rickheit and Sichelschmidt (1999) survey answers, open questions, and research directions for the mental-models framework.
Rickheit, G., & Sichelschmidt, L. (1999). Mental models: Some answers, some questions, some suggestions. In Advances in Psychology (Vol. 128, pp. 9–40). Elsevier. DOI
Key findings
- Internal representation thesis: — Mental models are dynamic, spatially organized representations that people construct to simulate states of affairs described in language or inferred from context.
- Discourse-world mapping: — Comprehension proceeds by building a model of what the text describes — not merely storing propositions — enabling inference and counterfactual reasoning.
Application
When a reader of a transit map builds a mental model of station order and interchange points; errors in the model (not word memory) drive wrong-route choices — open this cite for the study behind the move.