Intelligent aids, mental models, and the theory of machines

✍ Scribed by Neville Moray

• Book ID: 104139993
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1987
• Weight: 745 KB
• Volume: 27
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7373
• DOI: 10.1016/s0020-7373(87)80020-2

✦ Synopsis

The purpose of this paper is to establish an analytic theory of the content of an operator's mental models. Using Ashby's general theory of systems, it can be shown that a model can be regarded as a homomorph, rather than an isomorph, of the real system. Homomorphs provide a reasonable way to represent a system which is too complex, in all its details, to be understood. The mental model is probably a set of quasi-independent subsystems into which the total system can be decomposed. Analytic and empirical methods for identifying candidate homomorphs from the structure of the real system are proposed. It is suggested that a theory of design for intelligent displays and decision aids can be developed by regarding the mental model as a lattice, and the role of intelligent displays and aids as providing paths in the lattice which will be otherwise inaccessible to the operator. These proposals are related to recent work on induction.