star wars - How did Rey know how to do this?

In The Force Awakens movie, shortly after the mind-reading battle between Kylo Ren and Rey while she is captured, in which she is victorious, she uses a mind-trick on a Storm Trooper (James Bond).

How did Rey know that this would work? It seems odd to me that someone who only moments before, had little idea they had any Force-sensitive abilities, would know.

I know Rey has already had a vision, and Maz already told her the Force is calling out to her, but to me she seemed hesitant to accept these facts. She also seemed to be fairly interested any time the Force or Jedi is mentioned, but this might be because the Jedi are told in stories.

Anything canon or in the novelisation?

Answer

After realizing that she had some limited ability to enter Ren's mind, she thinks through the situation and decides to see if she can affect the trooper's mind - because what else can she do?

From the novelization:

What had happened?

Shackled and unable to move, Rey lay on the inclined platform in her restraints, pondering the encounter with Kylo Ren. At first there had been the same pain and fear she had felt in the forest on Takodana. It had intensified as he had probed deeper and she had fought to resist. Then— she had resisted. More than that, it was as if her resistance had somehow turned the probing back on him. For a brief instant, she had been in his mind. She could remember clearly his shock, then concern, and finally a retreat. He had pulled away from her, and out of her mind, with a suddenness that bespoke— not fright; something else. Apprehension, she decided. Whatever she had done had thrown him badly off balance. He had withdrawn: no doubt not only to consider what had taken place, but also to decide how to proceed with her. That meant, most likely, he would be back. She would do anything to avoid that.

And that is what she proceeded to do.

If she could push him out of her mind and enter his, what else could she do? What might she be able to do with regard to someone else? Someone less skilled, untrained in the ways of the Force? The single guard posted just inside the front of her cell, for example?