TABLE 3.

Analytical process for identifying students’ mental models from explanations

Analytic process	Direct mechanism	Indirect mechanism
Identify exemplary excerpts of transcript	“The stimulus … just sends a signal to all the muscles … that stimulus is basically telling the muscles.”	“Something changes … which is detected by a specialized sensory apparatus … so then that goes to the spine where it is transformed, a motor output is created … and then the muscle contracts.”
Generate a schematic based on production sequence	Stimulus → muscles	Change detected → transformed in spinal cord→ muscle contracts
Determine critical characteristics	Student indicates that stimulus has its effect directly on a target—muscle in this case.	Student indicates that the stimulus is detected, transformed, and then effects a target—muscle again.