scholarly journals Connecting the Dots: Pain Mental Models of Spousal Caregivers of Veterans with Dementia and Pain

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 894-894
Author(s):  
Phoebe Block ◽  
Srijana Shrestha ◽  
Tracy Evans ◽  
Michelle Hilgeman ◽  
Julia Loup ◽  
...  

Abstract Pain is prevalent among persons with dementia (PWDs), yet often goes underrecognized and undertreated. Exploring caregivers’ pain mental models may provide valuable insight into how they conceptualize pain, and how such conceptualizations affect their identification of and response to PWDs’ pain. We identified and described the pain mental model(s) of spousal caregivers of community-dwelling veterans with dementia and pain through a secondary qualitative thematic analysis of recordings of a psychosocial intervention aimed at preventing aggression in PWDs with pain. Thirty female spousal caregivers (11 Black, 10 non-Hispanic White, and 9 Hispanic) comprised the present sample. Two themes were identified: Pain Assessment Beliefs and Knowledge (PA) and Pain Management Beliefs and Knowledge (PM). In our proposed mental model framework, PA and PM affect the ways caregivers answer two PA-related questions (Is there a problem?, Is this problem pain?) and three PM-related questions (Is the pain treatable?, Is it worth treating?, How do I prefer to treat it?). Caregivers are moved to action when they “connect the dots” by identifying a problem in PWDs’ behavior, labeling the problem as pain, and identifying a response (i.e., a treatment approach) they consider worth trying. Disconnects in caregiver understanding of PWDs’ behavior are common in this sample, and predictably lead to inaction. The proposed mental model provides further explanation about how caregivers do or do not synthesize and apply pain knowledge and experience, allowing for the identification of potential areas of intervention (e.g., pain psychoeducation) to improve pain treatment for the PWDs under their care.

1997 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur C. Graesser

Researchers in the field of discourse processing have investigated how mental models are constructed when adults comprehend stories. They have explored the process of encoding various classes of inferences “on-line” when these mental microworlds are constructed during comprehension. This commentary addresses the extent to which these inferences and mental microworlds are “embodied.”


Author(s):  
Yosef S. Razin ◽  
Jack Gale ◽  
Jiaojiao Fan ◽  
Jaznae’ Smith ◽  
Karen M. Feigh

This paper evaluates Banks et al.’s Human-AI Shared Mental Model theory by examining how a self-driving vehicle’s hazard assessment facilitates shared mental models. Participants were asked to affirm the vehicle’s assessment of road objects as either hazards or mistakes in real-time as behavioral and subjective measures were collected. The baseline performance of the AI was purposefully low (<50%) to examine how the human’s shared mental model might lead to inappropriate compliance. Results indicated that while the participant true positive rate was high, overall performance was reduced by the large false positive rate, indicating that participants were indeed being influenced by the Al’s faulty assessments, despite full transparency as to the ground-truth. Both performance and compliance were directly affected by frustration, mental, and even physical demands. Dispositional factors such as faith in other people’s cooperativeness and in technology companies were also significant. Thus, our findings strongly supported the theory that shared mental models play a measurable role in performance and compliance, in a complex interplay with trust.


Author(s):  
John Rafafy Batlolona ◽  
Haryo Franky Souisa

This paper tells about the mental model of prospective scholars on the topic of temperature and heat. The purpose of this research is to improve students’ mental model by using problem based learning (PBL) model. The number of samples in the study amounted to 72 students with two different classes. The results of the study showed that, (1) the improvement of mental model that studied with PBL was higher than that studied with conventional learning. (2) high-skilled student mental models that are learning with PBL are higher than those studied by conventional learning. (3) low-skilled student mental models that study with PBL are higher than students learning with conventional learning. The conclusion of this study is the improvement of students' mental models using PBL models on the topic of conductivity in water. Thus the PBL model can be recommended in improving students' mental models on temperature and heat topics. The implication in this research is to improve the students' mental model as the agent of science education change.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bingjun Xie ◽  
Jia Zhou ◽  
Huilin Wang

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of the gap between two different mental models on interaction performance through a quantitative way. To achieve that, an index called mental model similarity and a new method called path diagram to elicit mental models were introduced. There are two kinds of similarity: directionless similarity calculated from card sorting and directional similarity calculated from path diagram. An experiment was designed to test their influence. A total of 32 college students participated and their performance was recorded. Through mathematical analysis of the results, three findings were derived. Frist, the more complex the information structures, the lower the directional similarity. Second, directional similarity (rather than directionless similarity) had significant influence on user performance, indicating that it is more effective in eliciting mental models using path diagram than card sorting. Third, the relationship between information structures and user performance was partially mediated by directional similarity. Our findings provide practitioners with a new perspective of bridging the gap between users’ and designers’ mental models.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henri de Jongste

Abstract This paper investigates how a mental-model theory of communication can explain differences in humorous texts and how aesthetic criteria to evaluate humour are dependent on the way mental models are exploited. Humour is defined as the deliberate manipulation by speakers of their private mental models of situations in order to create public mental models which contain one or more incongruities. Recipients can re-construct this manipulation process and thereby evaluate its nature and its quality. Humorous texts can be distinguished in terms of ownership of the manipulated mental model, the relationship between the speakers’ private and their public (humorous) mental model, as well as the speed required in the humorous mental model construction. Possible aesthetic criteria are the quality of the mental model manipulation, the pressure under which the humorously manipulated mental models have been constructed and the quality of the presentation of humorous mental models.


Author(s):  
Daniel Churchill

It is widely assumed that mental models are internal representations. Humans are capable of constructing these models when required by demands of an external task or by a self-generated stimulus. “Mind’s eye” can see, run, and interact with these mental models. Rather than stored in strictly fixed form in the mind, mental models are constructed on the spot when needed. Repeated application leads to refinement of a mental model and possible automation of its construction and use processes in one’s cognitive practice.


Author(s):  
Ji-Ye Mao ◽  
Bradley R. Brown

This study investigates the effectiveness of online task support (the wizard type in particular) relative to instructor-led training, and explores the underlying cognitive process in terms of the development of mental models. Ninety-two novice users of Microsoft Access were either trained by an experienced instructor or performed exercises with online task support, and then completed a variety of performance-based tests. Analysis shows that users of online task support tended to outperform instructor-trained individuals on high-level tasks, whereas the performance difference on low-level tasks was not significant. The cognitive processes underlying the difference are also noteworthy. Task support users were more likely to develop conceptual mental models as opposed to procedural ones, which accounted for their better high-level performance. Mental model completeness was also found to be closely associated with performance on both low and high-level tasks. These findings offer support for increased use of online task support.


Author(s):  
Ping Li ◽  
Jamshid Beheshti

This paper reports on the first stage of a research on doctoral students’ mental models of a Web search engine and factors that may affect their mental models. A modified version of a mental model completeness scale was developed and tested in a pilot study in Web search engine context.Cet article présente le premier stade d'une recherche sur les modèles mentaux des étudiants doctoraux avec un moteur de recherche Web et les facteurs qui peuvent les affecter. Une version modifiée d’une échelle de la perfection du modèle mental a été développée et examinée dans le contexte d’une étude préliminaire effectuée avec un moteur de recherche Web. 


1987 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kan Zhang ◽  
Christopher D. Wickens

The acquisition of mental models and the effect of instructions and a display aid on the performance on a complex dynamic processing system were examined in this experiment. Thirty subjects monitored a dynamic bar graph display of six system variables and were tested under three different conditions: 1) subjects were given contextual instructions and a picture display-aid which provided a perceptual context in which to interpret the changing variables (group P/B). 2) Subjects were only provided non-context instructions and tested by a bar graph display (group B). 3) A transfer group was trained under the same condition as same as group P/B and tested with the bar graph display (group P/B - B). The data showed that the combination of the context instructions and the meaningful display aid improved subjects' performance significantly. The accuracy of diagnosis of the group P/B was the highest among the three groups. It was also seen that training with the context instructions themselves could improve the accuracy of diagnosis although the difference between the transfer group and group B was not significant statistically.


Author(s):  
Kanter van Deurzen ◽  
Imre Horváth ◽  
Regine Vroom

People use cognitive representations in order to characterize, understand, reason and predict the surrounding world. A class of these representations are called mental models. Designers of informing systems are interested in how mental models influence decision making, especially during critical events. With this knowledge they could optimize the content and amount of information that is needed for a dependable decision making process. New insights are needed about the operation of mental models in the course of critical events, as well as on how informing influences the real life operationalization of mental models. Most of the definitions available in the literature are overly general, and no definition was found that would support the design of informing systems for critical events. Therefore, the objective of our research was to derive a definition of mental models that play a role in critical events. Actually, we systematically constructed a definition from those attributes of mental model descriptions that were found to be relevant to critical events. First we decomposed 125 published descriptions to a set of attributes, and then assessed each attribute to see if they were associated with critical events, or not. In fact, this analysis involved not only the relevance of the attributes to critical events, but also the frequency of occurrence in the surveyed papers. This exploration provided a large number of attributes for a new mental model definition. Based on the top rated attributes, a definition was synthesized which, theoretically, has a strong relation to critical events. Though further validation will be needed, we argue that the derived mental model definition is strong because it establishes relationships with all generic features of critical events and makes the related information contents explicit. Hence the proposed definition can be considered a starting platform for investigations of the influence of informing on decision making processes in critical events.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document