Describes 10 thinking games that are suitable for use in both elementary and secondary school classrooms. (FL)

The development and use of a taxonomy for describing the way distance students plan work and use course materials to complete mathematics exercises is detailed. The taxonomy was developed from an exploratory study but the initial results are viewed as having implications for educational use in many situations. (Author/MP)

Discusses an alternative approach to intelligence tests as a measure of intelligence. The approach is based on three classes of performance dealing with a person's choice of an internal representation for a problem, strategies for manipulating the representation, and abilities to execute elementary information processing steps required by the…

Eight-year-old children were trained on length or weight relationships between adjacent members of a five-item series of colored objects. Visual feedback was provided. Results indicated more salient visual feedback reduced learning effort for length but not for weight comparisons. Encoding differences found in another experiment were used to…

The operation of means-ends analysis (MEA) involves attempts at reducing differences between problem states and the goal state. It was paradoxically found that the more problem solvers knew of the goal state, the less they learned of the problem structure during the solution process. (PN)

Three experiments were conducted with the Tower of Hanoi task to assess problem-solving ability in 6-, 7-, 8-, and 10-year-old nonretarded children and mentally retarded young adults of varying maturational ages. (Author/MP)

Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development described what children are capable of doing at each stage of development; new research focuses on actual use of these capabilities. (Author/MLF)

An attempt is made to link the domain of mathematics and the natures and abilities of mathematicians to that which is perceptual, presentational, and implicit. (MP)

Describes an experiment which used a computer simulation program to demonstrate that there are characteristic differences between experts and novices when they have to solve problems in complex situations. Tables of data and a list of six references are included. (LLS)

Investigates the asserted differences in reasoning between adults and second, fourth, and sixth graders in a manipulation of variables task using class inclusion and story problems with common everyday situations. Results are discussed in terms of sensible reasoning and problem-solving skills. (CM)

The representation of analogy in memory and processes involved in the use of analogies were explored. Results indicated that solutions to a problem can be developed by using an analogous problem from a very different domain. (Author/RD)

Results suggested that, when encountering difficulties in the problem-solving situations on the test, the retarded Ss tended to take the easiest or shortest path to a response by scanning a minimum amount of material. (Author/DLS)

Forty second-year algebra students were interviewed while solving eight problems. Data from the interviews included frequencies of problem-solving processes and scores on the test. Conceptual knowledge accounted for 50 percent of the variance. (MP)

Cognitive organization in problem solving was investigated using a transfer paradigm. (SB)

Combined fading with the introduction of prompts designed to encourage learners to identify the underlying principle illustrated in each worked-out solution step. Across 2 experiments, this combination produced medium to large effects on near and far transfer without requiring additional time on task. Thus, the instructional procedure is highly…