Differences in Mental Model Development Among Psychology and Engineering Students of a Human Factors Course

Abstract

How does a human factors practitioner’s primary field of study affect the way he or she conceives of human factors concepts? Previous work has studied how mental models develop over the course of instruction, and how experts structure human factors knowledge. The present study longitudinally assessed mental models of human factors among students from psychology majors and students from engineering majors. Participants rated the relatedness of pairs of concepts for two units: one theoretical, and one applied. These data were used to produce Pathfinder networks for comparison. Results showed that students from the two majors held different mental models of the same concepts before and after instruction. Unexpected findings may indicate a possible application for mental model assessment: diagnosing issues in course design. Limitations, conclusions, and suggestions for future research are discussed.