| This dissertation presents an investigation in expert and novice problem solving. Specifically, experts and novices were observed and interviewed as they performed an open-ended categorization of general chemistry problems from seven fundamental chemical concepts. In addition, experts and novices were asked to predict the complexity of the same general chemistry problems and to explain their predictions of complexity. This research contributed to our model of problem solving expertise and to the fundamental differences between expert and novice problem solvers. This research also presents findings on the relationship between the structure or format of a problem statement and a problem solvers perception of the complexity or simplicity of the problem.;This study was based upon four research questions asking, how experts and novices categorized chemistry problems, how experts and novices described categories of chemistry problems, whether experts and novices were affected by structural features of a problem statement, and how experts and novices differed in these three areas. Results showed that experts and novices both preferred to categorize chemistry problems based upon principal chemical concepts, such as stoichiometry and thermochemistry. Experts were more inclined than novices to create categories of problems featuring a single chemical concept, while novices were more likely to combine two or three chemical concepts in a single category. Experts were more inclined to describe their categories of problems using terminology consistent with principal chemical concepts. In contrast, novices were more inclined to use secondary concepts such as "mole" or "electrons as their category descriptions. Experts and novices were found to be similarly affected by problems with non-text structural features, such as figures, graphs, or tables of data. These non-text structural features were found to have a positive affect on some participants and a negative affect on others. In addition, experts and novices were negatively affected by problems with complex mathematical solutions and positively affected by problems with short statements of four or fewer lines. |
