Background:
“A mental model is a form of mental representation for mechanical–causal domains that affords explanations for these domains. Mental models contain mental representations of objects in space and the causal relations among the objects. The structure of the mental representation corresponds to the structure of the world.
This analogical relation allows the mental model to make successful predictions about events in the world. The term ‘mental model’ is used to refer both to general model-based knowledge in long-term memory and to temporary specific mental representations constructed in the course of understanding particular events in the world. The term ‘mental model’ is also used to refer to mental representations of static spatial domains. In this usage, the term is typically restricted to the specific mental representations that are used to represent unfamiliar spatial arrays. These spatial mental models have an analogical relation with the spatial information in the external world and are typically experienced in terms of visual mental images. This usage of the term is also applied to the case where abstract logical problems are solved by converting them to spatial model-based formats” [from: Brewer, W. F. (2005). Mental models. In L. Nadel, Encyclopedia of cognitive science. Wiley.].
What is the connection between mental models and misinformation/disinformation? How do the models we create to help us navigate our worlds handle the rampant misinformation and disinformation so often found on major social media platforms and brought to us by AI?
What does the research say?
**refreshed August 2026**
Sources:
*Ecker, U. K. H., Butler, L. H., & Hamby, A. (2020). You don’t have to tell a story! A registered report testing the effectiveness of narrative versus non-narrative misinformation corrections. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 5(1), 64.
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*Hamby, A., Ecker, U., & Brinberg, D. (2020). How stories in memory perpetuate the continued influence of false information. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 30(2), 240-259.
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*Lee, J. (2022). The effect of web add-on correction and narrative correction on belief in misinformation depending on motivations for using social media. Behaviour & Information Technology, 41(3), 629-643.
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*Susmann, M. W., & Wegener, D. T. (2022). The role of discomfort in the continued influence effect of misinformation. Memory & Cognition, 50(2), 435-448.
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*Walter, N., & Tukachinsky, R. (2020). A Meta-Analytic Examination of the Continued Influence of Misinformation in the Face of Correction: How Powerful Is It, Why Does It Happen, and How to Stop It? Communication Research, 47(2), 155-177.
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