Understanding, Formalizing, and Reconstructing Mental Models with an Online Tool for Serious Discussions

Anjum, Madiha

Understanding, Formalizing, and Reconstructing Mental Models with an Online Tool for Serious Discussions

Anjum, Madiha

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Publication Type:: Thesis
Issue Date:: 2022

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Anjum, Madiha
dc.date.accessioned	2023-05-30T02:23:35Z
dc.date.available	2023-05-30T02:23:35Z
dc.date.issued	2022
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/170545
dc.description	University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.description.abstract	We live in a time when humanity faces many existential threats - climate change, resource depletion, biodiversity loss, and refugee crises. Wicked problems need to be properly approached and cannot be solved without human participation, which is hard to organize and support. Participatory modeling (PM) is one method that facilitates stakeholders' engagement in the decision-making process and enables collaboration to achieve a mutually acceptable solution. Mental models are essential tools in PM as they are informal representations of how the world works. The way we perceive, behave, and decide is also influenced by our mental models. Direct observation, learning, and experience can help in maintaining and updating our mental models. At the same time, mental models are constantly relied upon to reason, explain, design, communicate, act, predict, and explore. Overall mental models play an essential role across all domains of human agency. So, a tool that helps to formalize computer simulations from the mental models expressed by a group within a given problem situation will be of much benefit for practitioners from various fields like behavioural science, economics, education, and sustainability as they can gain many insights. We developed a real-time, moderated tool, named Discussoo, for understanding and formalizing mental models of participants of online discussions. Users are presented with a topic to debate, on which they can express their opinions/thoughts in the form of comments. Users can also respond or expand on other users’ opinions and/or initiate a new line of discussion. The discussion chain is then mined in real-time, using an ensemble of algorithms (including but not limited to concept mining, topic modeling, and sentiment analysis) to extract opinions, keywords, and concepts. This information is transcribed into formal models using Concept maps, Causal Loop Diagrams, and Networks Diagrams as the discussion evolves. To provide feedback, the system presents users with dynamic visualizations of the collective mental model, which they can use as contextual information to refine and update their individual mental models. Targeted moderator comments can also introduce feedback to steer or "nudge" the discussion towards a desirable collective mental model, outcome, consensus, or agreement.   Discussoo can be used in a variety of settings and problem situations, where the steering of collective mental models could improve the functioning, resilience, or sustainability of a given system or used by policy makers or any other organization who would benefit from a more direct, transparent and meaningful engagement of their stakeholders.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.format	Thesis (PhD)
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US.UTF-8
dc.relation	https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/170545/2/02whole.pdf
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
dc.rights	© 2022 Madiha Anjum
dc.rights	au.edu.uts.lib/cph
dc.title	Understanding, Formalizing, and Reconstructing Mental Models with an Online Tool for Serious Discussions	en_US.UTF-8
dc.type	Thesis
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*

Abstract:

We live in a time when humanity faces many existential threats - climate change, resource depletion, biodiversity loss, and refugee crises. Wicked problems need to be properly approached and cannot be solved without human participation, which is hard to organize and support. Participatory modeling (PM) is one method that facilitates stakeholders' engagement in the decision-making process and enables collaboration to achieve a mutually acceptable solution. Mental models are essential tools in PM as they are informal representations of how the world works. The way we perceive, behave, and decide is also influenced by our mental models. Direct observation, learning, and experience can help in maintaining and updating our mental models. At the same time, mental models are constantly relied upon to reason, explain, design, communicate, act, predict, and explore. Overall mental models play an essential role across all domains of human agency. So, a tool that helps to formalize computer simulations from the mental models expressed by a group within a given problem situation will be of much benefit for practitioners from various fields like behavioural science, economics, education, and sustainability as they can gain many insights. We developed a real-time, moderated tool, named Discussoo, for understanding and formalizing mental models of participants of online discussions. Users are presented with a topic to debate, on which they can express their opinions/thoughts in the form of comments. Users can also respond or expand on other users’ opinions and/or initiate a new line of discussion. The discussion chain is then mined in real-time, using an ensemble of algorithms (including but not limited to concept mining, topic modeling, and sentiment analysis) to extract opinions, keywords, and concepts. This information is transcribed into formal models using Concept maps, Causal Loop Diagrams, and Networks Diagrams as the discussion evolves. To provide feedback, the system presents users with dynamic visualizations of the collective mental model, which they can use as contextual information to refine and update their individual mental models. Targeted moderator comments can also introduce feedback to steer or "nudge" the discussion towards a desirable collective mental model, outcome, consensus, or agreement.   Discussoo can be used in a variety of settings and problem situations, where the steering of collective mental models could improve the functioning, resilience, or sustainability of a given system or used by policy makers or any other organization who would benefit from a more direct, transparent and meaningful engagement of their stakeholders.

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