Inside the Computer: Visualization and Mental Models

The EasyCPU environment was developed for teaching computer architecture to high school students of computer science. As a result of experience during the development, it was decided to perform research on the mental models that arise in the students as they learn. These mental models come from attempts by the students to make sense of the conceptual models presented to them by the software tool and their learning materials (textbook and exercises). These conceptual models concern the various components of the computer and their interconnections. We wished to investigate the relationship between the conceptual models that were presented and the mental models of the students. We conjectured that experience of the students as end-users of computers would be the basis of an initial nonviable mental model that the conceptual model would have to overcome.