•How to learn to use a computer-based application

•Using a computer-based application to understand a given topic

•People find it hard to learn by following instructions in a manual

•prefer to learn by doing.

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•Humans use two types of learning:

–Procedural – acquiring skills how to do something (Practice).

–Declarative – acquisition of knowledge about something (facts, figures, models) (Theory).

•Sub-processes for learning:

–Understanding concepts and rules of action.

–Remembering of data, objects, and relationships among them.

–Acquisition of motor skills and automation of control behaviors.

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Mental models:-

•Users develop an understanding of a system through learning about and using it

•Knowledge is sometimes described as a mental model:

–How to use the system (what to do next)

–What to do with unfamiliar systems or unexpected situations (how the system works)

•People make inferences using mental models of how to carry out tasks..

•Craik (1943) described mental models as:

– internal constructions of some aspect of the external world enabling predictions to be made

•Involves unconscious and conscious processes

–images and analogies are activated

•Deep versus shallow models

–e.g. how to drive a car and how it works

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