This study describes the relationship of two cognitive variables, logical thinking and disembedding ability, to learners' abilities to make conceptual shifts from less acceptable to more acceptable conceptual understandings of a physical phenomenon. The difference in the logical thinking and disembedding ability of students who exhibited different…

Many current studies have discovered that students tend to use either an Aristotelian or the Medieval impetus model rather than the Newtonian view in order to explain their experience. This preconceived knowledge may be important for students in learning mechanics. The purpose of this study was to identify and confirm the existence of a…