Previous Knowledge, Mental Models and Problem Solving. A Study with High School Students

Abstract

In this paper an experiment was carried out to test the theory of mental models of Johnson-Laird, which classifies subjects according to their previous knowledge. The subjects of the experiment were high school students of Valencia (Spain), to whom a problem solving test was administered. The results found seem to confirm that an inverse relation between the number of mental models implied in the problem and the percentage of subjects that solve it correctly, as the theory predicts. Moreover, subjects of higher previous knowledge do not always solve problems significantly better.

Keywords

• Procesos cognitivos
• estructura del conocimiento
• resolución de problemas.