The task of teaching writing to students in business, engineering, design, computer science, accounting, and other professional areas raises the question of what knowledge the writers call upon to create a rhetorically effective writing plan. Research suggests three plausible answers: their knowledge of schemata, the structure of their topic…

A series of studies was conducted over a three-year period to determine whether the teaching technique developed in the 1960s called "inquiry training" is effective for teaching problem-solving, thinking, and/or decision-making skills. (Inquiry training is a process in which students are provided with a puzzling situation, are given the…

An experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that abstract materials increase accuracy in solving categorical syllogisms. In an attempt to encourage subjects to reason their way through the problems rather than to make judgments about the truth or desirability of the proffered conclusions, the premises were composed of familiar words in…

Several recent studies in which subjects solved pencil/paper problems concerning the behavior of moving objects have shown that many people have incorrect beliefs about motion. The present study considered the question of whether these naive beliefs are manifested in situations where people observe and interact with moving objects. Several…

A model of how automated and controlled processing can be mixed in computer simulations of problem solving is proposed. It is based on previous work by Hunt and Lansman (1983), who developed a model of problem solving that could reproduce the data obtained with several attention and performance paradigms, extending production-system notation to…

Working in groups of three, seventh-grade students were video taped solving an applied mathematical problem. Audio tapes were made of each group discussing their session. Analysis focused on the first stage of Noddings (1984) model of problem solving for school mathematics: Creation of a representation. Some factors identified as impeding…

Trap setting is a concept based on a psycholinguistic explanation of the acquisition of second language skills emphasizing cognitive and creative processes over the auditory, visual, and imitative. It proposes that opportunities for repeated attempts at solving new problems through constant testing and retesting of creative hypotheses bring the…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the field of scientific inquiry concerned with designing machine systems that can simulate human mental processes. The field draws upon theoretical constructs from a wide variety of disciplines, including mathematics, psychology, linguistics, neurophysiology, computer science, and electronic engineering. Some of the…

A testing procedure used by J. W. Getzels and M. Csikszentmihalyi (1964) to gauge the relationship between problem finding and creativity in art students was employed in a study designed to determine if the same relationship existed in writers. Subjects were middle school students identified as either creative or noncreative by two separate…

Written for curriculum developers and vocational education instructors, this publication provides an understanding of cognitive concepts and methods using an information processing paradigm and shows how to apply this knowledge in development of curriculum and instructional plans. Chapter 1 reviews needs and characteristics of vocational education…

This research addresses the actual goals and intentions from which students plan and organize their work in a course of study. Representations can either facilitate or hinder learning and problem solutions. Several salient aspects of adult students' representational systems and how they influenced university study were examined in two studies. The…

A study was conducted to examine computer programming as a problem solving activity. Thirteen fifth grade children were selected by their teacher from an above average class to use Apple IIe microcomputers. The investigator conducted sessions of 40-50 minutes with the children in groups of two or three. Four problems, incorporating the programming…

A basic problem of disadvantaged students is their inability to deal with information: to assist the teacher the Niagara Centre of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education has described a set of skills sequences that might be called Basic Thinking Skills. (JM)

The unified theory described in this paper characterizes human reasoning as an information processing system with a hierarchical sequence of components and subtheories that account for performance on successively narrower tasks. Both deductive and inductive theories are subsumed in the unified componential theory, including transitive chain theory…

Mutual Group Hypnosis is discussed in terms of its similarity to group dynamics in general and in terms of its similarity to a social interaction program (Role Modeling) designed to foster the expression of warmth and acceptance among group members. Hypnosis also fosters a regression to prelogical thought processes in the service of the ego. Group…