From the course: Systems Thinking
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Mental models
- Information comes in the form of feedback from the real world. In the signals, from the marketplace, in the feedback from our customers, in reactions to things we say and do, we structure this information to make meaning of it. This meaning is our mental model. It becomes very important to understand precisely what mental models are made of. They're not merely made up of information, which comes from the real world and past experience, but are also made up of how we structure or organize or encode that information. The structuring or organizing of information is called thinking, or cognition. Systems thinking is being aware of how we structure or organize information. We can summarize mental models in a simple equation. m equals i plus t. The m, or mental models, is synonymous with knowledge or meaning, what we think, ideas, conclusions, concepts. The i is synonymous with information or data, or content. Whereas the t, or thinking, or cognition, is synonymous with how we structure…