The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of the gap between two different mental models on interaction performance\nthrough a quantitative way. To achieve that, an index called mental model similarity and a new method called path diagram to\nelicit mental models were introduced.There are two kinds of similarity: directionless similarity calculated from card sorting and\ndirectional similarity calculated frompath diagram.An experiment was designed to test their influence.Atotal of 32 college students\nparticipated and their performance was recorded.Through mathematical analysis of the results, three findings were derived. Frist,\nthe more complex the information structures, the lower the directional similarity. Second, directional similarity (rather than\ndirectionless similarity) had significant influence on user performance, indicating that it ismore effective in eliciting mentalmodels\nusing path diagram than card sorting. Third, the relationship between information structures and user performance was partially\nmediated by directional similarity. Our findings provide practitioners with a new perspective of bridging the gap between users�\nand designers� mental models.
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