The New Theory of Situation Models

A situation model is a mental representation of a described or experienced situation in a real or imaginary world.

Situation model components

Situation models are composed of four primary types of information:

1. A spatial-temporal framework (spatial locations, time frames)

2. Entities (people, objects, ideas, etc. )

3. Properties of entities (color, emotions, goals, shape, etc. )

4. Relational information (spatial, temporal, causal, ownership, kinship, social, etc. )

We assume that there are three levels of representation

1. Situation model (event-specific)

2. Episodic model (coherenent sequences of events)

3. Comprehensive model (a comprehensive collection of episodes)

We assume that there are two other basic types of knowledge that are used in situation model construction and processing.

1. General world knowledge (pan-situational knowledge about concept types, e.g., scripts, schemas, categories, etc.)

2. Referent specific knowledge (pan-situational knowledge about specific entities)