Error analysis performed on data sets revealed that seventh grade students used a variety of rules of operation for solving the signed-number arithmetic problems. The data sets were obtained from an experimental study in which students were randomly assigned to study either of two lessons written on a computer based education system. The two…

This research involved the observation and audio-recording of 30 ninth-grade mathematics students recommended as being outstanding by their mathematics teachers. Each student was presented with five different problem situations for which he or she was to make mathematical conjectures. During the interview, the students thought aloud and all of…

A study was designed to investigate forms of human internal knowledge organization that facilitate the recall of information or its use for complex problem solving tasks. Three experiments, using college and high school physics students, were performed. The effects were studied by: (1) formulating explicit models of organization; (2) using…

The conceptual and problem solving skills of Hawaiian rural elementary school students in the Kamehameha Early Education Program were investigated by comparing the logical connecting rules of conjunction (red and triangle) to inclusive disjunction (red and/or triangle) with respect to Traditional problems (selection of attributes from 2 different…

Solving equations in elementary algebra requires knowledge of the permitted operations, and knowledge of what operation to use at a given point in the solution process. While just these kinds of knowledge would be adequate for an ideal solver, human solvers appear to need and use other kinds of knowledge. First, many errors seem to indicate that…

A study of the responses made to problems selected from Raven's Progressive Matrices showed differences in the kinds of errors typically made by eighteen-year-old students. Nine problems were used and the 68 subjects were told to draw their answers on the answer sheets. There were two trials per puzzle. A classification system, devised for errors,…

MENTAL ABILITY CAN BE MEASURED BY THE PROBLEM-SOLVING PROCESS RATHER THAN BY THE NUMBER OF CORRECT SOLUTIONS. THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS STUDY ARE--(1) TO DEVELOP AND STUDY PROPERTIES OF MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES WHICH REVEAL THE PROBLEM-SOLVING PROCESS, (2) TO DEVELOP WAYS OF DESCRIBING INDIVIDUALS THROUGH THEIR PROBLEM-SOLVING PROCESSES, AND (3) TO…

A REVIEW OF THEORY AND EMPIRICAL RESEARCH ON "THE LEARNING BY DISCOVERY HYPOTHESIS," AND RELATED LITERATURE ON CONCEPT-LEARNING AND PROBLEM-SOLVING, WAS PREPARED FOR A CONFERENCE IN NEW YORK CITY, 1965. RECENT CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES IN THE SUBJECT AREA WERE DESCRIBED. ATTEMPTS WERE MADE TO IDENTIFY INDEPENDENT AND DEPENDENT VARIABLES AND…

Computer coaching of students as an aid in problem-solving instruction is discussed. This report describes an advanced form of computer-assisted instruction that must not only present the material to be taught, but also analyze the student's responses. The program must decide whether to intervene and how much to say to a pupil based on its…

This report focuses on the development of general problem-solving skills which are subsumed under the general heading of metacognition: in particular, the skills of predicting, checking, monitoring, reality testing, and coordinating and controlling deliberate attempts to learn or solve problems. The report is organized in five sections: an…

The theoretical framework for investigating human planning behavior and the procedures, results, and implications of two experiments involving planning in the domain of software design are presented in this report. A plan is defined as a hierarchical structure that underlies the solution to a problem; planning is the process of constructing this…

A study of the meanings of "generation," a popular term in current rhetorical jargon, reveals important developments in the art and theory of rhetoric. As now used, it refers without clear distinction to rule-governed, heuristic, and trial-and-error procedures. The rule-governed procedures of transformation grammar are being employed to…

This comprehensive bibliography on problem solving and concept formation includes books, papers, journal articles, reviews of literature, projects, unpublished manuscripts, reports, research bulletins, dissertations, and related bibliographies dating from 1924-1967. Special annotations are made of materials on problem solving with young children.…

This research is concerned with human problem-solving behavior that involves inductive reasoning or concept formation when that behavior is being assisted by certain computer and display aids (called symbol manipulation functions). Human subjects use a variety of systematic operations when they are solving such problems. In order to analyze…

Presented is a model of problem solving that incorporates elements of hypothetico-deductive reasoning in the Piagetian sense, and heuristic-algorithmic processing in the information-processing sense. It assumes that people invoke both formal reasoning strategies and learned algorithms whenever they solve problems. The proposed model integrates the…