1. Mental Models are of all types. As long as they organize the world in a meaning making way, we can call any organization of the world as a mental model.
  2. Mental models, to be valuable and useful, need to be recognizable across situations. In short, they must be distinct entities. In order to sidestep controversy, we call these ‘Formal Mental Models’.
  3. Formal Mental Models may be described as comprising of three basic characteristics:
    1. They can be represented as formal organization of insights.
    2. They can be imposed on a certain cluster of data with predictable results.
    3. They can be “bounded” – in that we can define clearly both – what falls out of the scope of a mental model’s operation, and what falls in, and under what circumstances.
  4. When we use this definition for Formal Models, we are converting them for a generic set of mental operations to a concrete, purposive, set of mechanisms used by the human mind to process and reform the data/ inputs being provided by the external world.
  5. The definition also carries the criteria of falsifiability. It says that if a thought process does not meet this criteria, it can be rejected as an example of a Formal Mental Model.
  6. Put another way, Formal Mental Models represent the entire body of human thought which, when scoped and applied to data, yield certain “results” in terms of data organization.
  7. Formal Mental Models then can be represented in two categories (i) tacit and (ii) explicit.
  8. Tacit Models are those mental models who are observable by their effects in terms of data processing and conclusion, but have not been formally articulated.
  9. On the other hand, Explicit models are those which are not only observable in the effects out are also “re-presentable” for the purpose of discussion and sharing.
  10. Clearly the ideal is to make as much of the world of mental models explicit and sharable as possible.
  11. Much of the world of science is about identifying and testing these mental models so that they are able to “explain” the external world effectively.
  12. Formal mental models, in short, help us understand clearly our methods of organization of the world at large.
  13. The more we understand our own methods of organization, the closer we are to harmonizing multiple points of view in our search for effectiveness and social contribution.

Related posts:

  1. From Mental Models to Enabling Models
  2. The reflexivity between identities and mental models
  3. Don’t change the system, change the mind
  4. The Enabling Mind