Students' Physical And Mechanical Problems Classification And Characterization Study

Categorization is a very important learning ability. The quality of problem representation is critical for solving problem. The premise of right problem representation is the right categorization of problem. In the study of knowledge-rich domain in cognitive psychology, subject problem representation has been a hotspot of subject problem-solving.As the key link in problem-solving, problem representation takes a very important part in whether solving the problem successfully or not. During the high middle students' solving problem, it is an important factor to category the problem correctly. The high middle students with different attainment level behavior differently in their comprehension and representation of physics problem.The present study included two sections. Experiment 1 explored categorization and representation difference between the high middle students with good attainment level and the ones with bad attainment level, using a free and a labeled categorization test and sixteen high middle physics mechanics application problems (with and without the present ofdiagrammatic sketch). Experiment 2 explored difference between the high middle students with good attainment level and the ones with bad attainment level in identifing deep structure of physics mechanics application problems. The final results found that:(1) The free categorization time of high middle students with the present ofdiagrammatic sketch was remarkably shorter than that of students without the present ofdiagrammatic sketch. High middle students with good attainment level categorized physics problem based on deep character (physics principle representation), but high middle students with bad attainment level categorized physics problem based on face character (letter representation).(2) In the labeled categorization test, the accuracy rate of high middle students with good attainment level was remarkably higher than high middle students with bad attainment level. Accuracy rate of good students withdiagrammatic sketch was remarkably higher than that of good students withoutdiagrammatic sketch.(3) The performance of high middle students with good attainment level was remarkably higher than high middle students with bad attainment level in identifing deep structure of physics mechanics application problems. The higher similarity between face character and deep structure was, the better high middle students identifed deep structure of physics problems.