This paper explores a major theoretical framework from psychology, Dual Process Theory (DPT), which has received surprisingly little attention in the computing education literature. DPT postulates the existence of two qualitatively different kinds of cognitive systems, a fast, intuitive "System 1" and a slow, reflective "System…

In 5 experiments, results showed that when participants are faced with materials embedding relations between both adjacent and nonadjacent elements, they learn exclusively the type of relations they had to actively process in order to meet the task demands, irrespective of the spatial contiguity of the paired elements. These results are consonant…

This paper examines the characteristics of the thinking skill we call "melioration" i.e., the competence to borrow a concept from a field of knowledge supposedly far removed from his or her domain, and adapt it to a pressing challenge in an area of personal knowledge or interest. The skill has its source in conscious personal meaning-making, not…

The focus of this report was the degree of independence of memory attributes in determining performance. A demonstration experiment indicated that memory can carry an associative attribute and a frequency attribute simultaneously with little interaction between the two, that is, they were independent in their influence on performance. The…

This paper evaluates associative theories of sentence memory, based on the model of J.R. Anderson and G.H. Bower. A model of Human Associative Memory (HAM) is generalized and defined, and alternative models incorporating configural information are presented. (CK)

Examines the usefulness of paired associative performance to assess for school learning proficiency by comparing a sample of learning-disabled (LD) youngsters to normals. Results indicate that the proportion of subjects in the normal and the LD groups who reported use of elaborative strategies compared to none laborative strategies does not differ…

Noting that current cognitive theories focus on the belief that knowledge is an organized collection of long-term structures upon which various processing mechanisms operate, this paper argues that mental functioning may be more readily characterized if the idea of abstract long-term associations and structures is abandoned. It proposes a model of…

This study tested whether the word association employed by individual students could be used to predict their performance in a particular course. It was designed to explore a new method for describing the various models used in thinking and to determine whether this approach would yield results that were consonant with current cognitive theory. At…

Three experiments tested the generality of the conclusion that associative unlearning is minimal in the A-B, A-D paradigm. In Experiment 1, single-trial study of A-D, following single-trial study of A-B, did not produce retroactive inhibition in the recognition of A-B. In Experiment 2, A-B was acquired by associative matching. The interpolated…

Examines the relations between research about processes of learning and thinking and educational practices that attempt to achieve that aim. Three research perspectives, behaviorist, cognitive, and situative, that characterize thinking and learning to think differently are discussed. It argues that the situative perspective can provide a framework…

Evaluation of two components of transfer--response learning and associative learning--was accomplished by comparing the recall method with the multiple-choice method. (Author/CB)