Problem solving allows students to use what they know to achieve a goal when no solution is apparent. Traditional educational models evolved from an earlier system, based on rote memorization and designed to produce employees for industry. The workforce of tomorrow must move beyond rote learning by both applying current knowledge and using…

The authors conducted 3 experiments addressing the issue of how observations and multiple sources of prior knowledge are put together in category learning. In Experiments 1 and 2, learning was faster for critical features, which were predictable on the basis of prior knowledge, than for filler features, and this advantage increased as more…