Call for Papers:

Workshop on Mental Models in Human-AI Interaction: Methods and Challenges in the Generative and Agentic AI Era
At ACM IUI 2027: 31st Annual ACM Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces
February 8, 2027
Helsinki, Finland
Workshop: https://mentalmodelsofai.vercel.app/
IUI 2027: https://iui.acm.org/2027/

Deadline for submission of papers: November 9, 2026

The mental model construct is widely used in HCI to refer to the knowledge structure people hold to reason about computing systems. Yet the construct is often used interchangeably with related concepts (e.g. folk theories, sensemaking) and methods of studying it are many and diverse. Generative and agentic AI systems further complicate mental model formation and elicitation as such systems are opaque by design and increasingly act on users’ behalf across files, applications, and on the web. Together, these challenges may hinder the commensurability of research on people’s mental models of AI systems. The MM/AI workshop calls for a critical reassessment of how we understand and study mental models in human-AI interaction research. It aims to foster theoretical and methodological exchange on mental models in human–AI interaction, identify open challenges, and develop directions for future research.

We invite researchers and practitioners to the inaugural Mental Models of AI (MM/AI) workshop, held on 8 February 2027 at ACM IUI 2027 in Helsinki, Finland.

We welcome short papers (up to 4 pages) including theoretical, empirical, methodological, and conceptual contributions on mental models in human–AI interaction. We are particularly interested in empirical work that critically reflects on how mental models are conceptualized and elicited, and on the assumptions and limitations of the methods used to study them.

Topics of interest include:

• Elicitation methods and their limitations;
• Challenges that generative and agentic AI pose for mental model elicitation;
• Longitudinal and in-situ approaches to capturing mental models as they evolve through interaction;
• Distinctions and overlaps between mental models and related constructs;

IMPORTANT DATES

Submission deadline: November 9, 2026
Notification of acceptance: December 7, 2026
Camera-ready deadline: December 21, 2026
Workshop: February 8, 2027

All deadlines are Anywhere on Earth (AoE).

MORE INFORMATION

Workshop and submission details: https://mentalmodelsofai.vercel.app/

Questions: [email protected]