Examined, over 1 year, relations between information processing efficiency, working memory, and problem solving in sample of 8-, 10-, 12-, and 14-year-olds. Identified three-stratus hierarchy with individual dimensions organized in three constructs: processing efficiency, working memory, and problem solving. Found that individual dimensions were…

Explores the role of premature cognitive closure in the development of inferential reasoning among 62 children aged 7, 9, and 12 years through two studies. Results indicate that despite a strong tendency to close on single alternatives, most children correctly assigned nonzero probabilities to each of the possible alternatives. (RJC)

A total of 308 undergraduates performed 2 word tasks and a gestalt closure task in a study of intuition. Subjects could respond discriminately to coherence they could not identify and were led by this perception to form a hunch or hypothesis. Clues to coherence evidently activate problem-solving networks. (SLD)

Examines whether problem solving, decision making, and other thinking skills depend more on deep expertise in a specialty or on reflective awareness and general strategies. General and specialized knowledge function in close partnership. The partnership's nature and implications for educational practice are explored. (Author/BJV)

Two features of a new horizontal conceptualization of expertise are explored. Polycontextuality refers to the multiple ongoing tasks apparent in expert work, and boundary crossing is considered as a cognitive process that characterizes much expertise. Three case studies, one in a Finnish elementary school, illustrate these concepts. (SLD)

Surface and relational similarity were examined in two experiments involving isomorphic and nonisomorphic analogical transfer, using direct-mapping and cross-mapping conditions. In the first experiment, third and sixth graders exhibited mapping based on relational similarity more frequently than did kindergartners; in the second, most four- to…

Discusses a rhetorical competence theory that is primarily concerned with an abstract understanding of the rhetorical and cognitive processes that underlie rhetorical acts. Presents the theory as an analogical system based on the four master tropes: metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony. Draws upon the systems of analogical reasoning, problem…

Effective problem solvers have an aptitude complex composed of cognitive, affective, and conative factors. After diagnosing learning readiness, instructions can organize strategies to help students structure knowledge and develop the attitudes, confidence, and skills to think through application-level problems. (SK)

The social cognitive problem-solving skills of 389 adults (ages 17 to 72) with mental retardation were evaluated using the Means-Ends Problem-Solving measure. Subjects employed limited means to solving social problems and generated proportionally fewer relevant means than expected. The relationship between self-determination and social problem…

Makes the analogy between Wilfred Bion's theory of mental processes involving preconception and mathematical problem solving. (MDH)

This prospective study of 17 high-functioning residentially treated adolescents with autism found that cognitive shifting, as measured by card sorting tests, was the only significant factor in predicting progress in social understanding. (Author/JDD)

A study examined students' thinking processes when using database applications to solve an ill-structured business problem and compared six students using command language with six using menu selection computer interfaces. Students used a subgoal analysis method for problem solving. Command language group was more likely to skip relevant factors…

A study found gifted middle schoolers (n=60) solved analogous problems better when presented in verbal form, but improved skills in both modalities once exposed to the solution of analogous problems in the visual-humorous modality. Average children (n=60) tended to solve cartoons better, but working with cartoons increased verbal problem-solving…

Presents a framework for differentiating between five levels of extension of knowledge: basic features, forms, rules, application, and elaboration. Comparison of the extent of knowledge use exhibited by (n=14) Year-11 Australian students on a range of plane geometry problems found that high-achieving students exhibited greater extension of…

Assesses the ability of university students enrolled in an introductory calculus course to solve related-rates problems set in geometric contexts. Indicates that overall performance on the geometric related-rates problems was poor and the poorest performance was on steps linked to conceptual understanding. (Contains 34 references.) (Author/ASK)