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I find this usage of “mental model” to be really strange -- it implies you’re intentionally simplifying or abstracting something. Alpha blending is well-defined
by iainmerrick 5y ago
I find this usage of “mental model” to be really strange -- it implies you’re intentionally simplifying or abstracting something. Alpha blending is well-defined mathematically, so why would you need to abstract it? It’s perfectly OK not to know how it works, or to think you know and then realize you’re mistaken; but thinking in terms of “mental model” implies it can’t be fully understood, which isn’t the case. When you know how it works, you don’t have a more refined mental model, you just know! (Or think you know...)
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- asveikau 5y agoI think they're saying they thought they knew how it works, but were wrong.
- mLuby 5y agoYour mental model of mental model doesn't match mine. I have a mental model of how an elevator works from using them many times, but it's absolutely a simplified understanding of the real mechanisms at work. I believe elevators are fully understandable but I don't need that level of detail to operate one. If it became important to know more about them (say I was in an elevator that malfunctioned) then I'd invest more in making my mental model more correct. So to me, mental models aren't necessarily intentionally or consciously formed and they can certainly be used for quick simplified reasoning about things that may be in fact well-understood.