Cognitive change in mental models with experience in the domain of organic chemistry

Abstract

We examined cognitive change in students' mental models, and consequently their problem-solving strategies, as a result of instruction in the domain of organic chemistry. Three groups of students received organic chemistry instruction that emphasised either imagistic strategies, analytic problem-solving strategies, or their combination. Before instruction, students' solution strategies were largely imagistic. After instruction, imagistic strategies comprised a minority of the strategies reported, indicating a switch from analogue mental models to more abstract representations. This switch was moderated by instruction and ability such that students who received analytic instruction used more analytic strategies after instruction and students with higher spatial ability used more imagistic strategies after instruction. Problem-solving success was associated with using a greater range of strategies. These results are consistent with research in other domains suggesting that imagistic mental models are associated with novelty, and as students gain more experience in a domain, they adopt domain-specific heuristics and rules when possible.