Mental Models and Software Human Factors: An Overview

摘要

Mental models are structures and processes imputed to a person's mind in order to account for that person's behavior and experience. Ideally speaking, a mental model is a theory that could give answers to questions like 'What does he know about the CHAR DEL key', 'What happens when she thinks about deleting a message', or 'Why did he split the line to insert text, instead of just inserting'. The development of mental model theories is a major thrust of current software human factors research and as such is likely to be a future driving force in software design.