mental model

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

an internal cognitive representation of how something works in the real world, used to predict behaviour, understand causation, and guide action in novel situations; people construct mental models of physical systems, social dynamics, institutional rules, and technical artefacts; accurate mental models enable effective reasoning and problem-solving, while inaccurate or incomplete models lead to systematic errors; the concept is central to human factors engineering, interaction design, and educational psychology, all of which seek to align external systems with users' intuitive internal representations