Study 1-3: An In-Depth Exploration of the Role of Iconic Representations in the Study of Congruence of Triangles

Abstract

The studies conducted by Klein (1970) and Farris (1970) opened, in a somewhat indirect way, a multitude of questions about how to more adequately conceptualize the various modes of representation. The descriptions of the modes, as stated by Bruner (1964), are clearly much too loose for conducting instructional research of the type envisioned by the Paradigms Project. What appears to be needed are definitions that at least come close to permitting consistency of classification. In this connection, it was thought that more information about the individual modes—if even in their more pure forms—was a first order of business. In any event, it was this sort of thinking that gave rise to this investigation as well as to the companion study by Bowers (1971).