Does mental representation mediate the roles of knowledge and decision aids in the performance of a task

The workplace offers the individual the opportunity to apply prior knowledge (gained from study or experience) with available tools in the workplace (the task environment) to perform various tasks for the employer. However, results of statistical tests of prior cognitive models incorporating knowledge and the task environment are dependent upon the specification of these features. Beyond these ambiguous results, the prior cognitive models do not provide insight into the actual cognitive processes used in task performance. For example, the prior cognitive models do not provide any details of how individuals integrate prior knowledge and the task environment when performing a task.; This research was designed to address these issues. The cognitive model in this research recognizes a component of memory, called mental representation, as having a central role in integrating the task environment and prior task knowledge into an understanding that is used by problem solvers. Furthermore, this model suggests that mental representation is an important predictor of task performance. The mental representation component is an extension of prior cognitive models used in accounting research. Furthermore, this representation model also allows a direct test of mental representation that is not present in information systems research.; The mental representation model led to hypotheses about the role that decision aids, as a feature of the task environment, and knowledge have on mental representation. The model also predicts the role of mental representation on task performance. An experimental instrument was used to examine the hypotheses. Analysis of the data collected from 159 participants indicated that knowledge differences and decision aid use both led to different mental representations. Furthermore, the completeness of the participant's mental representation was a predictor of task performance. Although the representation model provided similar data-fit as other cognitive accounting and information systems models, a “grounded” model incorporating elements of the representation model and the other cognitive performance models provided a superior fit. These results offer accounting and systems researchers a more complete understanding of the cognitive process, as well as an alternative tool with which to examine cognitive behavior.