Models of Mental Functioning

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to develop models of basic cognitive tasks developed in previous research. A model of choice reaction time was written in Simscript II.5 but development of this model made it clear that additional information was required before good models of basic cognitive tasks could be devised. Therefore, a number of experiments were conducted which were designed to provide the basic information needed. The experiments focused on several questions important to the construction of explicit models. Some of these questions were: How do subjects build mental models of instructions and to what extent do the goodness of these models affect subsequent performance? What aspects of stimulus structure are important in the encoding of the stimuli used in these tasks? Seven experiments addressing these issues were conducted. In general, results suggest that basic cognitive tasks are far more complex than had previously been thought. Keywords: Individual differences, Mental models, Cognition.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 14, 1989
Accession Number
ADA210456

Entities

People

  • Douglas K. Detterman

Organizations

  • Case Western Reserve University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Air Force
  • Air Force Facilities
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Coding
  • Cognition
  • Computers
  • Data Analysis
  • Human Intelligence
  • Information Processing
  • Intellectual Disability
  • Intelligence Tests
  • Judgment
  • Mental Processes
  • Psychology
  • Reaction Time
  • Students

Fields of Study

  • Education
  • Psychology

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Computer Science.
  • Organizational Psychology.