ABSTRACT
Our long-range goal is to develop a model of how one acquires an understanding of mechanistic devices such as physical machines, electronic and hydraulic devices, or reactors. We focus on two aspects of this problem. First, we lay out a framework for investigating the structure of people's mental models of physical devices, which we call mechanistic mental models. This involves developing a precise notion of a qualitative simulation and the kinds of "work" one expects it to do. The concept of qualitative simulation derives from the common intuition of "simulating the machine in the mind's eye." One of the goals of this chapter is to put this common intuition on a more solid theoretical base.
