| Abstract: | Although science education intends to help students learn to think, research in this area does not usually use psychological research on how people think. The purpose of this article is to describe one type of research, commonly called information-processing psychology. Its goal is understanding how people think while doing complex tasks. It uses detailed data, usually from individual subjects, and develops precise yet powerful models of human performance, often by using a computer. After describing information-processing research, we illustrate it with two studies. The first shows how computer models are used to explain thinking. A computer program models the knowledge needed to understand and use a physics textbook. The second study shows how information-processing approaches can be used systematically but more simply. This study clarifies why students find it so difficult to master the “factor-label” method for converting chemical units. The article concludes with a discussion of guidelines and suggestions for using information-processing ideas. |
