Thinking across mental models
Mom: Son, it is 7 'o clock already. Get up! You are getting late for school Son: I don't want to go to school Ma.. The teachers don't like me and all the students laugh at me. Mom: Son.. that is no reason to skip school. You have to go to school -- besides, you are the Principal of the school!! *~*~*~*~*~*~ I know it is an old joke, but why is it funny (even if it is a PJ)? The reason why this story is funny is that, out brain does its thinking typically within the framework of what is called, a mental model . The mental model determines what "ground truths" or unchallenged assumptions, will guide our reasoning process. The "semantic memory" in our brains is responsible for giving inputs that form these ground truths. The ground truths represent significant concepts relevant to the situation, and relationships among them. For instance, in the above story, we would have typically assumed that the Son in the story is a student w...