Mental models for conservation research and practice

Conservation practice requires an understanding of complex social‐ecological processes of a system and the different meanings and values that people attach to them. Mental models research offers a suite of methods that can be used to reveal these understandings and how they might affect conservation...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inConservation letters Vol. 12; no. 3
Main Authors Moon, Katie, Guerrero, Angela M., Adams, Vanessa. M., Biggs, Duan, Blackman, Deborah A., Craven, Luke, Dickinson, Helen, Ross, Helen
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.05.2019
Wiley
Subjects
Animal cognition
Bayesian belief networks
cognitive maps
Cognitive models
Conservation
Conservation practices
decision‐making
Domestication
Ecosystems
influence diagrams
Jones, Ross
Knowledge
modeling
Nonnative species
perceptions
pragmatism
qualitative
Research methodology
Researchers
social science
Social-ecological systems
social‐ecological system
Variables
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Summary:Conservation practice requires an understanding of complex social‐ecological processes of a system and the different meanings and values that people attach to them. Mental models research offers a suite of methods that can be used to reveal these understandings and how they might affect conservation outcomes. Mental models are representations in people's minds of how parts of the world work. We seek to demonstrate their value to conservation and assist practitioners and researchers in navigating the choices of methods available to elicit them. We begin by explaining some of the dominant applications of mental models in conservation: revealing individual assumptions about a system, developing a stakeholder‐based model of the system, and creating a shared pathway to conservation. We then provide a framework to “walk through” the stepwise decisions in mental models research, with a focus on diagram‐based methods. Finally, we discuss some of the limitations of mental models research and application that are important to consider. This work extends the use of mental models research in improving our ability to understand social‐ecological systems, creating a powerful set of tools to inform and shape conservation initiatives.
ISSN:1755-263X
1755-263X
DOI:10.1111/conl.12642