Mental models of recursive computations vs. recursive analysis in the problem domain

Abstract

The work outlined here was inspired by [1, 3], where the authors analyze the mental models of recursion by looking at how students trace simple recursive computations. Besides trying to understand if their results generalize to a different context, I was interested to see the correlations between the mental models of the computation process and the ability to establish recursive relationships in the problem domain. My investigation essentially lends further support to the findings of [3]. However, a consistent mental model of recursive computations, although implied by the ability to use recursion in problem-solving, does not seem to be sufficient for the achievement of this higher-level skill.