These investigations were conducted to examine the relationship between problem-solving ability and the criteria used to decide that two classical mechanics problems would be solved similarly. We began by comparing experts and novices on a similarity judgment task and found that the experts predominantly relied on the problems' deep structures in deciding on similarity of solution, although the presence of surface-feature similarity had a clear adverse effect on performance. The novices relied predominantly on surface features, but were capable of using the problems' deep structures under certain conditions. In a second experiment, we compared groups of novices, at the same level of experience, who tended to employ different types of reasoning in making similarity judgments. Compared to novices who relied predominantly on surface features, novices who made greater use of principles tended to categorize problems similarly to how experts categorized them, as well as score higher in problem solving. These results suggest that principles play a fundamental role in the organization of conceptual and procedural knowledge for good problem solvers at all levels.

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Beginning physics students were constrained to analyze mechanics problems according to a hierarchical scheme that integrated concepts, principles, and procedures. After five 1‐hour sessions students increased their reliance on the use of principles in categorizing problems according to similarity of solution and in writing qualitative explanations of physical situations. In contrast, no consistent shift toward these expert‐like competencies was observed using control treatments in which subjects spent the same amount of time solving problems using traditional approaches. In addition, when successful at performing the qualitative analyses, novices showed significant improvements in problem‐solving performance in comparison to novices who directed their own problem‐solving activities. The implications of this research are discussed in terms of instructional strategies aimed at promoting a deeper understanding of physics.

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