Case studies of mental models in home heat control: Searching for feedback,

valve, timer and switch theories, Article Review.

The article “Case studies of mental models in home heat control: Searching for
feedback, valve, timer and switch theories” was written by Kirsten M.A. Revell and Neville
A. Stanton. The concept of mental models is not new. Over the last decade, there has been a
surge of articles in the field, indicating advancement and interest. However, the impact
outside of Mental models has been relatively limited, evidenced by the ever-dwindling
number of citations. Unfortunately, Mental Models find themselves sandwiched between a
more theoretical and a more practical group, each of which may claim a larger intellectual
challenge and greater relevance in practical contexts. This is especially true in the sector of
home heating, where the last significant advancement occurred decades ago. As refreshing as
seeing progress reported in the area again is refreshing, the current paper must be read and
judged in this context. The authors looked into conventional home heating settings that had
been employed in previous research projects (Revell & Stanton, 2014;2015). According to
the findings of these studies, interface design contributed to erroneous mental models of
device performance, which influenced user behavior with heating controls.
This report relates to data gathered from a home heating system specialist from the
heating control manufacturing business that designed the gadgets placed in the Revell and
Stanton case study families (2014). A semistructured interview and paper-based activities
were used, as detailed in Revell and Stanton (2014). They discovered evidence that certain
mental models' associated behavior patterns were more energy-efficient than others, as they
supported 'night set back.' According to Revell and Stanton (2014), erroneous or inadequate
mental models explained the non-optimal operation of home heating devices, where energy
was either squandered or heating goals were not met. Significant energy savings may be
realized if heating systems were properly programmed (Gupta et al. in Combe et al., 2011),
but in a study conducted by Combe et al. (2011), 66 percent of participants were unable to
accomplish the assigned programming job.
According to the study, mental models of UK home heating systems deviate greatly
from the actual functioning of UK heating systems. Differences in the control devices
described in mental model descriptions could explain operational confusion. Misconceptions
and omissions in user mental models could be addressed by applying the concept of home
heating mental models to support appropriate energy consumption. It's encouraging to
observe how the method scales to real-world scenarios. The cost of scalability, however, is
having to deal with a plethora of issues that the article only skims over, never offering a
complete picture. The authors would be better served to provide a physical abstraction of
their approach; perhaps it only works in certain circumstances, but at least we can grasp how
and why.
 References

Combe, N., Harrison, D., Dong, H., Craig, S., & Gill, Z. (2011). Assessing the number of
users who are excluded by domestic heating controls. International Journal of
Sustainable Engineering, 4(1), 84–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/19397038.2010.491563

Revell, K. M. A., & Stanton, N. A. (2014). Case studies of mental models in home heat
control: Searching for feedback, valve, timer and switch theories. Applied Ergonomics,
45(3), 363–378. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2013.05.001