Related: Fake explanation, Guessing the teachers password, Understanding your understanding, many more
The mental model concept gets used so frequently and seems so intuitively obvious that I debated whether to bother writing this. But beyond the basic value that comes from unpacking our intuitions, it turns out that the concept allows a pretty impressive integration and streamlining of a wide range of mental phenomena.
Is "mental model" not an ordinary/transparent term? Is "map" actually any different?
A map is generally a specific sort of model, but not all models are maps. It's much harder to extend the map metaphor into something that actually resembles human thought processes.