摘要：Mental models are personal, internal representations of external reality that people use tointeract with the world around them. They are constructed by individuals based on their unique lifeexperiences, perceptions, and understandings of the world. Mental models are used to reason and makedecisions and can be the basis of individual behaviors. They provide the mechanism through which newinformation is filtered and stored. Recognizing and dealing with the plurality of stakeholder's perceptions,values, and goals is currently considered a key aspect of effective natural resource management (NRM)practice. Therefore, gaining a better understanding of how mental models internally represent complex,dynamic systems and how these representations change over time will allow us to develop mechanisms toenhance effective management and use of natural resources. Realizing this potential, however, relies ondeveloping and testing adequate tools and techniques to elicit these internal representations of the worldeffectively. This paper provides an interdisciplinary synthesis of the literature that has contributed to thetheoretical development and practical application of the mental model construct. It explores the utility andapplicability of the construct in the context of NRM and includes a review of elicitation techniques usedwithin the field. The major theoretical and practical challenges that arise in drawing on the construct toprovide a cognitive dimension to NRM are also addressed
