Ernest McDaniel

Information Search Strategies in Loosely Structured Settings

This study was designed to reveal search strategies in a loosely structured information environment and to examine cognitive and motivational correlates of particular search strategies. Subjects browsed freely through a hyper-card program containing 105 topics on the Vietnam war. Search strategies were evaluated on a continuum ranging from random search to planned, investigative searches. The findings show search strategies to be significantly related to cognitive complexity, academic ability, and need for cognition. More investigative search strategies were also associated with more complex summaries of the information viewed. The search strategies observed are consistent with other studies of search behavior and learning orientations, and tend to validate the role of ability, cognitive complexity and need for cognition as predisposing variables influencing behavior in loosely structured information settings.

Computers and School Reform.

Part of the vision of school reform is to reconstruct schools as “learning communities” in which students and teachers pursue topics of interest. Computers can provide powerful tools for students in learning communities where inquiry, data gathering, interpretation, thinking, and judgment take place. Changing beliefs in educational goals and great support for teachers will be necessary if we are to realize the potential of computers in restructured classrooms. The greatest possibilities exist in new “Professional Development Schools,” where university faculty join school teachers in joint efforts to restructure learning environments. New evaluation procedures are also needed if competencies associated with information retrieval and use are to be assessed.

Relationships between Learning Styles and Performance on Problem-Solving Tasks

A computerized problem-solving task was employed to study the relationships among problem-solving behaviors and learning styles. College students made choices to find their way home in a simulated “lost in the woods” task and wrote their. reasons at each choice point. Time to read relevant information and time to make decisions were measured by the computer clock. These variables were correlated with learning style variables from Schmecks (1977) questionnaire. The findings indicated that subjects who perceived themselves as competent learners take more time on the problem-solving task, use more information and make fewer wrong choices.

A Measure of Attitude Toward School

A scale was developed to measure attitude toward school among elementary school pupils. Scores on the questionnaire were positively correlated with teacher ratings of school attitudes, non-verbal ability, standardized tests of school achievement and self-concept scores for a sample of fourth grade pupils.

Development of a group test for assessing perceptual abilities.

A motion picture test of perceptual abilities has been developed for use with elementary school children. The test has two parts. In Part 1 the child must identify a hidden stimulus figure within one of four designs. In Part 2 the child must identify from four alternatives a figure formed by separate lines which have been presented successively. The test is a self-administering 16-mm sound film and requires about 30 min. of total testing time.

Examining the Effects of Questioning on Thinking Processes with a Computer-Based Exercise.

Computers are used widely for many purposes in educational settings. In this article the computer is used as a tool in an experimental setting. This study investigates the effects of self-generated questions and external questions on thinking processes. Thirty-three subjects received the program under three conditions of questioning: 1) external higher order questions, 2) external lower order questions, and 3) self-generated questions. The results revealed that question conditions were unrelated to the quality of explanations of a complex situation constructed by subjects. Note-taking was related to the quality of the explanations. The nonsignificant findings for question conditions were interpreted as indicating that questions and prompts to generate questions may elicit overt compliance without necessarily motivating the subjects to actually interrogate the material.

Approaches to Studying Reasoning

More than 85 years ago, Charles Peirce (1903), in a speech at Harvard, criticized a fellow logician for “the fundamental mistake of confounding the logical question with the psychological question. The psychological question is what processes the mind goes through. The logical question is whether the conclusion that will be reached, by applying this or that maxim, will or will not accord with the “fact.” Historically, philosophers analyzing reasoning have fixed their attention on procedures for getting conclusions that accord with the facts. Thus, as Bruner (1986) points out, “There was no psychology of thought, only logic and a catalogue of logical errors” (p. 107).

Children's use of form and color in a problem-solving situation.

A set of acetate puzzles permitting use of form and color were administered to 36 children in nursery school through Grade 3. A progressive change with age in ability to use color concepts in construction of forms was observed. The testing materials and procedure appear to merit further attention.

Thinking as Levels of Cognitive Complexity

Whether or not constructive thought proceeds as a progression of logical sequences is open to question. William James’ (1880) early descriptions of thought processes, particularly higher thought processes, seems consistent with more recent conceptions of creative thought. According to James: Instead of thoughts of concrete things patiently following one another in a beaten track of habitual suggestion, we have the most abrupt cross-cuts and transitions from one idea to another, the most rarified abstractions and discriminations, the most unheard-of combinations of elements, the subtlest associations of analogy; in a word, we seem suddenly introduced into a seething caldron of ideas, where everything is fizzling and bobbling about in a state of bewildering activity, where partnerships can be joined or loosened in an instant, treadmill routine is unknown, and the unexpected seems the only law…the same premises would not, in the mind of another individual, have engendered just that conclusion; although, when the conclusion is offered to the other individual, he may thoroughly accept and enjoy it, and envy the brilliancy of him to whom it first occurred. (p. 185)

Interpretive Exercises and The Scoring Rationale for Evaluating Levels of Thinking

We have produced and collected data on two interpretive exercises, The Holocaust and the Bomb Factories. Each of these exercises presents students with a complex situation and asks for their written interpretations.