Conceptmapping Thesis: Chapter 2, part 2. Mental Models
2.2 Mental Models
People construct internal representations, called mental models, of the situation in the world that they want to reason about and then change those models, in ways corresponding to the ways the world can change, to try to find solutions to their problems.
[Mind in Action, p 68]
The creative process is essentially the formulation of models and their repeated reformation. The act of creating a representation is fundamental to the cognitive process because it allows us to test and question the nature or existence of relationships between concepts. Cognitive Science investigates the model on which we base our thoughts; just how do we store and manipulate the symbols that comprise our ideas?
