The Role of a Mental Model in Learning to Operate a Device

This report presents three studies concerned with learning how to operote o simple control panel device, and how this learning is affected by understanding a device model that describes the internal mechanism of the device. The first experiment compared two groups, one of which learned o set of operoting procedures for the device by rote, and the other learned the device model before receiving the identical procedure training. The model group learned the procedures foster, retained them more accurately, executed them faster, and simplified inefficient procedures far more often, thon the rote group. The second study demonstrated that the model group is able to infer the procedures much mare easily than the rote group, which would lead to more ropid learning ond better recall performonce. The third study showed that the important content of the device model was the specific configuration of companents and controls, and not the motivational aspects, component descriptions, or general principles. This specific information is what is logically required to infer the procedures. Thus, the benefits of having a device model depend on whether it supports direct and simple inference of the exact steps required to operate the device.