Expert and novice performance in solving physics problems

Just so stories

Teachers see many more buggy programs than they do correct programs. We view this volume of buggy programs as riches to be mined: as windows into the thought processes of the students. In this paper we will describe one of the methods we employ in analyzing buggy programs: "just so bug stories", in which we generate hypotheses as to the misconceptions on the student's part that may have led to the observed program bugs. Our goal in presenting this discussion is to convince the reader of the potential for improved programming instruction that can come from paying attention to the bugs in a student's program: by truly understanding what the student was thinking about, we are in a much better position to offer counsel to the student.

Expert Systems Research

Artificial intelligence, long a topic of basic computer science research, is now being applied to problems of scientific, technical, and commercial interest. Some consultation programs, although limited in versatility, have achieved levels of performance rivaling those of human experts. A collateral benefit of this work is the systematization of previously unformalized knowledge in areas such as medical diagnosis and geology.

On the nature of intelligence

Our concept of intelligence has been heavily influenced by the development of intelligence tests as screening devices in education and personnel selection. An alternative approach is to begin with a theory of the process of cognition and identify those aspects of individual mental performance that should be important on theoretical grounds. Three classes of performance have been identified. These deal with a person's choice of an internal representation for a problem, strategies for manipulating the representation, and abilities to execute elementary information processing steps required by the strategy.

Toward a theory of clinical expertise

We believe that the outline of a promising approach to the study of expert clinical problem-solving is emerging. This process involves collecting as verbal transcripts the thoughts of experienced clinicians engaged in simulated clinical tasks and analyzing these transcripts to formulate theories of problem-solving tactics and strategies. In turn, these theories are embodied in a computer program that simulates the problem-solving process. The computer program's response to fresh clinical problems can be compared with physician behavior in order to revise, refute, or confirm the problem-solving theories. A scientific understanding of the expert clinician's reasoning strategies could prove exceptionally useful in improving the way we teach and practice medicine and in developing practical computer aids for medical decision-making.

Curvilinear Motion in the Absence of External Forces: Naive Beliefs About the Motion of Objects

University students were asked to draw the path a moving object would follow in several different situations. Over half of the students, including many who had taken physics courses, evidenced striking misconceptions about the motion of objects. In particular, many students believed that even in the absence of external forces, objects would move in curved paths.

The behavioral and social sciences

In the social sciences, as in other sciences, progress is often placed by advances in observational techniques and instruments. This article reviews some of the recent technical progress in the social sciences ans then discusses three substantive frontier areas that are particularly exciting at present: evolutionary theory, especially in relation to sociobiology, the theory of human rational choice, and the newly christened discipline of cognitive science. All three claim to provide explanations for broad areas of human behavior.