Progress Toward a Theory of Cognitive Structure. Final Report.

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 of instructional variables in learning certain probability concepts have been conducted, giving information about aptitude x treatment interaction and about the effects of instructional procedure on structural outcomes of learning. (2) Analyses of performance in a transportations problem indicated that the cognitive process of solving the problem is considerably simpler than the external structure of the problem, and gives considerable doubt to prospects for inferring cognitive process directly from overt responses in problem solving. (3) Observarion of subjects' acceptance and rejection of conclusions showed that a previously noticed tendency toward induction of class membership is very general, and also led to a new hypothesis about the psychological rule of inference that corresponds to logical implication. (Author)