Measures the effects of presentation mode and perceived difficulty on retention of academic content material. Finds the main effects of presentation mode and difficulty to be significant; however, pairwise comparisons of means for mode did not show significant differences. (NH)

This study examined a proposed procedure for constructing theoretical descriptions of mechanics problems, in particular, to determine if the procedure led to explicit and correct descriptions of the motion and interaction of systems and if the resulting theoretical descriptions facilitated generation of correct constraint equations and, hence,…

Previous research on the nature of aptitude processes had ignored the important differences between speed and level of performance. However, investigations of the relationship between individual differences in speed and level suggest that speed of solving simple spatial tasks is largely independent of level attained on more complex spatial tasks.…

Describes a systematic investigation of the understanding of the concept of acceleration among students enrolled in a variety of introductory physics courses through individual demonstration interviews. Describes and identifies some conceptual difficulties and discusses some implications for instruction. (Author/SK)

A pilot study on the development and administration of a test using a spatial reasoning problem, the 15-puzzle, is described. The test utilizes on-line capabilities of a real-time computer to record an examinee's progress on each problem through a sequence of problem-solving "moves", and to collect additional on-line data that might be…