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.
Thanks for the helpful comment.
As far as the style goes, I very consciously try to write only what I know (since otherwise I have the bad habit of jumping to unwarranted conclusions), but it seems I might have let this prevent me from exploring any new or interesting territory.