Mental Models is a book published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., in 1983 ISBN 0-89859-242-9. It was edited by Dedre Gentner

Dedre Gentner

Dedre Gentner is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Northwestern University. She is a prominent researcher in the study of analogical reasoning. Her work on structure-mapping theory was foundational for the development of the structure mapping engine by Ken Forbus...

 and Albert L. Stevens, both employees of Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Inc. at the time. It appeared at about the same time as a book by the same name by Philip Johnson-Laird

Philip Johnson-Laird

Philip Johnson-Laird is a professor at Princeton University's Department of Psychology and author of several notable books on human cognition and the psychology of reasoning....

. According to the acknowledgment

Acknowledgment (creative arts)

In the creative arts and scientific literature, an acknowledgment is an expression of gratitude for assistance in creating a literary or artistic work....

 of the book, it resulted from a workshop on mental model

Mental model

A mental model is an explanation of someone's thought process about how something works in the real world. It is a representation of the surrounding world, the relationships between its various parts and a person's intuitive perception about his or her own acts and their consequences...

s held at the University of California, San Diego

University of California, San Diego

The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...

 in October 1980, that was jointly sponsored by the Office of Naval Research

Office of Naval Research

The Office of Naval Research , headquartered in Arlington, Virginia , is the office within the United States Department of the Navy that coordinates, executes, and promotes the science and technology programs of the U.S...

 and the Sloan Foundation.

Chapters

1. Some Observations on Mental Models — Donald A. Norman, UCSD

   Dr. Norman describes the properties of mental models — that they can be contradictory, incomplete, superstitious, erroneous, and unstable, varying in time. So the job of system designers is to help users form an accurate and useful mental model of a system. And the job of researchers is to set up experiments to learn to understand actual mental models, even though they may be messy and incomplete.

2. Phenomenology and the Evolution of Intuition — Andrea A. diSessa, MIT
   Massachusetts Institute of Technology
   The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
   
   
3. Surrogates and Mappings: Two Kinds of Conceptual Models for Interactive Devices — Richard M. Young, Medical Research Council, Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge, England
4. Qualitative Reasoning About Space and Motion — Kenneth D. Forbus, MIT
5. The Role of Problem Representation in Physics — Jill H. Larkin, Carnegie Mellon University
   Carnegie Mellon University
   Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
   
   
6. Flowing Waters or Teeming Crowds:Mental Models of Electricity — Dedre Gentner, Bolt Beranek and Newman, and Donald R. Gentner, UCSD
7. Human Reasoning About a Simple Physical System — Michael D. Williams, Xerox PARC
   Xerox PARC
   PARC , formerly Xerox PARC, is a research and co-development company in Palo Alto, California, with a distinguished reputation for its contributions to information technology and hardware systems....
   
   , James D. Hollan, and Albert L. Stevens, Bolt Beranek and Newman
8. Assumptions and Ambiguities in Mechanistic Mental Models — Johan de Kleer and John Seely Brown
   John Seely Brown
   John Seely Brown is a researcher who specializes in organizational studies with a particular bent towards the organizational implications of computer-supported activities....
   
   , Xerox PARC
9. Understanding Micronesian Navigation — Edwin Hutchins, Navy Personnel Research and Development Center
10. Conceptual Entities — James G. Greeno, University of Pittsburgh
    University of Pittsburgh
    The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
    
    
11. Using the Method of Fibres in Mecho to Calculate Radii of Gyration — Alan Bundy, University of Edinburgh
    University of Edinburgh
    The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
    
    
12. When Heat and Temperature Were One — Marianne Wiser and Susan Carey, MIT
13. Naive Theories of Motion — Michael McCloskey, Johns Hopkins University
    Johns Hopkins University
    The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
    
    
14. A Conceptual Model Discussed by Galileo and Used Intuitively by Physics Students — John Clement, University of Massachusetts
    University of Massachusetts
    This article relates to the statewide university system. For the flagship campus often referred to as "UMass", see University of Massachusetts Amherst...