The purpose of this project was to develop new information and analyses that would contribute to development of a systematic understanding of cognitive structure, including its acquisition and utilization during problem solving. Experimental and theoretical work was done on three specific problems. (1) Studies of individual differences and effects…

The relation of knowledge for solving problems to understanding of general principles in a subject-matter domain is discussed. Theoretical representations, called "conceptual competence," are presented to represent principles that are believed to be understood implicitly by individuals. Implications for problem-solving procedures can be…

In the pair of experiments reported here the authors investigated the relationship between meaningfulness of problem statements and subjects' use of these statements in problem-solving tasks. Subjects (96 university students) were required to memorize meaningful formulae such as "volume = area x height" or corresponding symbolic formulae such as…