Event-based prospective memory involves remembering to perform an action in response to a particular future event. Normal younger and older adults performed event-based prospective memory tasks in 2 experiments. The authors applied a formal multinomial processing tree model of prospective memory (Smith & Bayen, 2004) to disentangle age differences…

Our knowledge "system" is built up from disciplines and specialties as its components, which are "wired" by patterns of collaboration that constitute its organization. The intellectual autonomy of these components prevents this knowledge system from adequately accounting for what we have gradually discovered during the past 50 years: In human…

Physics and management are disciplines deeply implicated in the domination of the physical and social world. This book is the product of ethnographic fieldwork that studied physics and management programs as points of entry that give access to larger processes that constitute and reproduce disciplines and center around the incorporation of…

This case study was carried out with a student who was 9 years old and in the fourth grade when the study began. She was selected after the administration of an exploratory questionnaire to 66 pupils in primary school. The main features of the case were the absence of a common referent and a corresponding unit to the free generation of references…

Back-of-the-envelope problems call for approximate calculations of quantities that can be related to information in a person's knowledge but are not solved precisely. These problems provide an opportunity for the study of processes and the role of general knowledge in ill-defined problem solving. Subjects with advanced and intermediate knowledge…

This paper describes the methods and techniques called Conceptual Analysis (CA), a rigorous procedure to generate (without involuntary omissions and repetitions) knowledge bases for the development of knowledge-based systems. An introduction is given of CA and how it can be used to produce knowledge bases. A discussion is presented on what is…

Based on the premise that planning in writing is a strategic response to both the writing situation and the writer's own knowledge, this paper describes the process adult writers bring to ill-defined, expository tasks, such as writing essays, articles, reports and proposals. The paper also states that in planning, writers draw on (nest and…

This document reports the development of an instructional design model for facilitating students' higher order thinking in vocational education programs. It is intended to help those who establish training requirements, identify training problems, diagnose student learning needs, develop training programs, and evaluate program effectiveness. The…

This paper represents one portion of an ongoing effort to elaborate on pedagogical principles based on structural-developmental (largely Piagetian) theory and research. Here, a concept of "problem structure" is developed as a means for identifying physical factors that contribute to children's ability to apply experimental reasoning.…

Ten individuals in the Educational Technology Program at the University of Northern Colorado served as subjects for this study, which was designed to: (1) identify cognitive networks of concepts within components of a system design model for expert and novice instructional developers, and (2) determine cognitive networks of concepts between…

This report summarizes the conceptual framework, findings, and methods of the Teacher Beliefs Study, an intensive, two-year program of research on the structures and functions of teachers' belief systems. Eight teachers in three school districts were videotaped over the course of a semester and were interviewed for a total of approximately 20…

Three studies examined the domain of concepts about dinosaurs in order to assess how the domain might be structured in 4- through 7-year-old children's representations and to explore how the knowledge might be used. Findings indicated that significant differences exist in the way expert and novice children's representations are structured.…

Reported are early results of a research program that aims to improve children's mathematics learning by developing attitudes and strategies that support processes of interpretation and meaning construction in mathematics. Considerable research shows that many children learn mathematics as symbol manipulation rules, without meaning. Collaborative…

Mathematics is generally regarded as a well-structured discipline by educators and cognitive scientists. This leads to the analysis of the suggestion that practitioners begin investigating possibilities for teaching mathematics as if it were an ill-structured discipline, with more than one interpretation for mathematical statements. The paper is…

In an experiment using a conditional logic task, subjects were given a set of cards defining a particular conditional relationship. The subjects were required to determine the rule and predict the outcomes of the rule. Rule structure was varied by providing subjects with either a suggested rule, a partial rule, or no rule for each set of cards.…