This study evaluated the validity of some new methods to assess student's cognitive representations of classroom learning. In the context of a sophomore-junior level class in statistics and design, 40 students judged the relatedness of 30 of the important concepts in the domain. Network representations of the rating data were derived using the Pathfinder scaling algorithm. The similarity between each student's and the instructor's networks was then assessed using a set-theoretic measure C. The correlation between exam performance over the course of the semester and C (r = .74, p < .01) was a better predictor than either the raw rating data, or a structural approach employing multidimensional scaling. The present approach to structural assessment extends previous work in the area by satisfying several criteria important to a knowledge-assessment technique.

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“Workarounds” are nonstandard procedures operators devise to compensate for system deficiencies. This study investigated the impact of workarounds on the perceived importance of problems discovered during operational test. Questionnaire data were collected for 73 reported design deficiencies to assess the existence and effectiveness of workarounds and the importance of the tasks they affected to mission success. Problems were viewed as more important when workarounds were ineffective or time consuming, and when the tasks affected were deemed critical to mission success. Implications for problem prioritization are discussed.