This study investigated conditions for optimizing college students' analogical problem solving. Students given pictorial (not verbal) representations of solutions to source problems were better problem solvers, as were students given a longer time. Students who derived personal solution principles to source problems were not superior to students…

Discusses research on cognitive styles and strategies. Groups labels into two principle styles. Describes the wholist-analytic style, examining whether an individual tends to process information in wholes or parts, and the verbalizer-imager style considering whether an individual is inclined to represent information during thinking verbally or in…

Summarizes experiments indicating that a basic key to learning is the development of concepts of pattern recognition and the appropriateness of using a particular theorem. (Author/SK)