A Scoping Review of Mental Model Research in HCI from 2010 to 2021

Research on mental models has been ongoing in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) since the 1980s. A mental model derives from humans’ perception, memories, knowledge, and causal beliefs about the external reality, mediating how they describe, explain, and predict the world surrounding them. By understanding users’ mental models of a target system, designers can improve the learnability and usability of a system via a better interface. Although understanding mental models is important for interface design, unfortunately understanding what is meant by the term ‘mental model’ can be a challenge. The field has historically been plagued by inconsistent usage of the term, as pointed out by prior researchers. It has been some time since the last comprehensive evaluation of HCI-related mental model research. This scoping review provides a comprehensive overview of the current literature on mental model research in HCI from 2010 to 2021, exploring aspects such as where research has been conducted, by whom, on what, using which methods, and for which purposes. The findings suggest a growing diversity in approach, with new perspectives and methodologies being introduced. Our review was initiated by a desire to understand the state of the art of mental models research, and sustained by a sense of confusion about the different ways that different researchers used the term. We hope that it will help people new to the field to make sense of the rich, diverse, but at times rather confusing ways that the term ‘mental model’ is used in HCI research.