STRATEGY DISCOVERY AS A COMPETITIVE NEGOTIATION BETWEEN METACOGNITIVEAND ASSOCIATIVE MECHANISMS

Both metacognitive and associative models have been proposed to accoun t for children's strategy discovery and use. Models based on only meta cognitive or only associative mechanisms cannot entirely account for t he observed mix of variability and constraint revealed by recent micro genetic studies of children's strategy change. We propose a new approa ch where metacognitive and associative mechanisms interact in a compet itive negotiation. This approach provides the flexibility to model the observed variability and constraint. (C) 1997 Academic Press.