THE KINDS OF MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS - MODELS, PROPOSITIONS AND IMAGES- USED BY COLLEGE PHYSICS STUDENTS REGARDING THE CONCEPT OF FIELD

Our objective was to investigate at what level of mental representatio n college students operate regarding the physical concept of field, pa rticularly in the domain of electromagnetism, when solving problems an d questions. Our theoretical basis lies in Johnson-Laird's theory of m ental representations, according to which there are at least three maj or kinds of such representations: mental models, propositions and imag es. Some 50 sophomore engineering students were observed during two se mesters regarding the level of mental representations they used when s olving problems and questions proposed as instructional tasks. Researc h findings suggest that students work mostly with propositions not rel ated or interpreted with respect to mental models.