Mental models, cognitive maps, and quantitative analysis

Who it's for: Learners with a fundamental understanding of mental models who want to learn how to externally portray and analyze them.

Why we love it: This paper begins by overviewing cognitive maps as a tool to create externalized portrayals of individuals' mental models. The authors then explore and critically evaluate various network-based quantitative methodologies for analyzing mental maps. The authors use the example of a complex socio-environmental issue evaluated by 30 graduate students, with accompanying causal diagrams and analysis. This article does a great job of overviewing current methodologies and highlighting where they fall short.

Citation: Haque, S., Mahmoudi, H., Ghaffarzadegan, N., & Triantis, K. (2023). Mental models, cognitive maps, and the challenge of quantitative analysis of their network representations. System Dynamics Review, 39(2), 152–170. https://doi.org/10.1002/sdr.1729