Conflicting explanations and unrelated information in science classrooms increase cognitive load and decrease efficiency in learning. This reduced efficiency ultimately limits one's ability to solve reasoning problems in the science. In reasoning, it is the ability of students to sift through and identify critical pieces of information that is of…

Empirical evidence on the way in which expert designers from different domains cognitively connect their internal processes with external resources is presented in the context of an extended cognition model. The article focuses briefly on the main trends in the extended design cognition theory and in particular on recent trends in information…

Reacts to Heppner and Krauskopf's article on an information processing approach to personal problem solving by evaluating the model for its scientific adequacy and its heuristic value for descriptive research. Asserts that the model offers useful information for counselors attempting to help clients deal with everyday life. Discusses conceptual…

Expands the notion of problem by creating a pluralistic theory of problems that embraces both the limited concept created by the information-processing school and an epistemic concept of problem. (JAD)

Looks at an alternative method to linear notes for organizing thoughts when preparing a talk or paper. This method displays the manner in which the relationships of a subject are organized and offers a format for displaying complex inter-dependencies in place of linear notes. (Author/MER)

Paper presented at the meetings of the Midwest Conference of Political Scientists (Ann Arbor, Mich., April 24-26, 1969)

Argues that the information-processing paradigm can both revitalize so-called strong-effects theories in mass media research and make them more inclusive. Discusses how the four previous studies in this issue show the use of simple solutions to problems that have plagued mass-media-effects research and call out for further inclusion of discussions…

Discusses a study which investigated whether a computer simulation model could suggest subroutines that were instructable and whether instruction on these subroutines could facilitate subjects' solutions to the problem task. (JM)

The social processes which limit the use of direct perceptual experience and the way in which they affect communication between two individuals who seek to resolve problems together are explained. A model designed to bring direct experience into balance with social structures as a perceptual resource for partners in the problem solving process is…

Develops a contingency model for managing a variety of corporate crises. Views crisis management as an information-processing situation and organizations that must cope with crisis as information-processing systems. Attempts to fit appropriate information-processing mechanisms to different categories of crises. (PRA)

The SPADE theory, which uses linguistic formalisms to model the planning and debugging processes of computer programming, was simultaneously developed and tested in three separate contexts--computer uses in education, automatic programming (a traditional artificial intelligence arena), and protocol analysis (the domain of information processing…

This paper examines the application of different planning models to the new product development process. Various models are discussed in relation to the four principal stages of the process: product search, project development, market structure analysis, and investment analysis. The authors emphasize that all useful planning models must address a…

This report presents the results of research that examined widely diverse decision problems and attempted to specify their common behavior elements. To take into account the psychological complexity of most real-life decision problems, and to develop a tentative organization of decision behavior that will embrace the many, highly diverse types of…

The goal of problem-solving education should be to develop tools for thinking that will constitute a shell or framework of action procedures that can be applied on an ever-changing database. These tools come in the form of heuristics that can be modified and adapted to new situations. (Author/MLW)