The proposals concerning working memory outlined in this paper involve the architecture of working memory, the reasoning mechanisms that draw on it, and the ways in which working memory may develop with age. Ways of assessing task demands and children's working memory capacities are also considered. It is noted that there is long-standing evidence…

Cognitive processes and knowledge structures used in physics problem-solving at the high school or freshmen college level were investigated by analysis of expert and novice human problem-solving behavior and by development of computer programs which can solve informally-stated physics problems. Computer representations for the information…

This paper outlines several properties of internal representational models (IRMs) and offers terminology that may help to differentiate the models. Properties of IRMs include focus, memory systems, content, cognitive function, "metastructure," quality of attachment, behavioral strategies, and attitude toward attachment. An IRM focuses on…

This study investigated the propositions that (1) the expressed preference for formal-deductive style of thinking and mathematics anxiety are negatively correlated; (2) the preferred cognitive style is positively correlated with the respondent's self-assessment of mathematical ability; and (3) those expressing a preference for the analyst style of…

Research in teacher education has shifted from an emphasis on teachers' behaviors to a focus on teachers' thinking. The purposes of this paper are to describe categories of beliefs held by preservice secondary science teachers, to describe how the preservice teachers planned lessons, and to discuss the influence of their beliefs on their planning.…

This study examined the manner in which people who differed in degree of stereotyping of women organized sets of gender-relevant information. The Gender Expectancies (GE) measure was used to assess degree of stereotyping. Cognitive organization was assessed in two ways. First, principal component factor analyses using a varimax rotation were done…

Issues concerning student intellectual development during college are considered in a symposium paper and in two reactions by faculty members. The symposium was sponsored by Bowling Green State University as part of the Academic Outcomes Project, which explores the effect of college on student growth and development. The reflective judgment model…

Little is known about very young children's conception of alcoholic beverages and their uses. A study was conducted to determine whether preschool children's ability to correctly access a cognitive network about alcoholic beverages can be related to differences in family exposure to alcohol. Preschoolers (N=57) between the ages of 2.5 and 6 years…

Knowledge elicitation through programming was studied to determine students' intuitive ideas about motion. The subjects, 17-year-old sixth-form science students and 14-year-old third-form students, were asked to write expert systems programs about motion; and their interactions with their own knowledge were observed. The 17-year-old students had…

This paper examines research on the education of women and girls from the perspectives of sex differences, gender differences, and feminist studies, with particular reference to the implications of the findings for the design of computer-assisted instruction systems. The four modules of the Ingelligent Computer-Assisted Instruction (ICAI)…

This paper examines research studies that have concluded that elementary school children can learn more difficult and abstract social studies concepts than are taught in the traditional social studies curriculum. Research studies that focus on constraints on cognition, the use of embedded concepts, and understanding knowledge restructuring and…

This paper analyzes the misconceptions high school students have about force and suggests that the misunderstanding of Newton's third law is the key to these misconceptions. Clinical interview and diagnostic test data (N=104) indicates that many students have a naive view of force as an acquired or innate property of single objects rather than…

This study developed a hybrid of item response theory (IRT) models and latent class models, which combined the strengths of each type of model. The primary motivation for developing the new model is to describe characteristics of examinees' knowledge at the time of the examination. Hence, the application of the model lies mainly in so-called…

Military and personnel training research addressing individual differences in training environments appears in four general research areas. These include the study of (1) trainee cognitive strategies, learning styles, and sensory modalities; (2) noncognitive characteristics of trainees; (3) aptitude-performance interactions; and (4) the effects of…

This study reports two experiments which indicate that the processes of providing subjects with insightful representations of example programs and guiding subjects through an "ideal" problem solving strategy facilitate learning. A production system model (GRAPES) has been developed that simulates problem-solving and learning in the…