Modeling how students learn: The Cascade project

The primary objective of this project was to develop a computational theory of how students learn conceptually rich cognitive skills, such as Newtonian physics.  The development was grounded in detailed analyses of human talk-aloud protocols.  At times, our ideas were embodied in a computer program named Cascade, which learned a cognitive skill by doing the same sort of academic work that students do: studying examples, solving problems, getting feedback from a teach or tutor, etc. The project began in January, 1988, and continued until approximately 1998.

Personnel                     

• Kurt VanLehn, U. of Pittsburgh Computer Science Professor, Principal Investigator.
• Michelene T. H. Chi, U. of Pittsburgh Psychology Professor
• Randolph M. Jones, Research Associate
• Rolf Ploetzner, Research Associate
• William Baggett, Research Associate.
• Sigalit Ur, U. of Pittsburgh Intelligent Systems Program Graduate Student.
• Charles Murray, U. of Pittsburgh Intelligent Systems Program Graduate Student.
• Stephanie Siler, U. of Pittsburgh Psychology Department Graduate Student

Sponsor

• Office of Naval Research (ONR) Cognitive Sciences Division.

Publications

The Cascade model of the self-explanation effect

• What mediates the self-explanation effect? Knowledge gaps, schemas or analogies? 1993.
• Learning by explaining examples to oneself: A computational model. 1993.
• Integration of analogical search control and explanation-based learning of correctness. 1993.
• A model of the self-explanation effect. 1992.
• A fine-grained model of skill acquisition: Fitting Cascade to individual subjects. 1992.
• Modeling the self-explanation effect with Cascade 3. 1991.
• The content of physics self-explanations. 1991.

Learning events

• Why do only some events cause learning during human tutoring? 2003
• Rule learning events in the acquisition of a complex skill. 1999.
• What makes a tutorial event effective?  1998

Analogy

• Analogy events: How examples are used during problem solving. 1998.
• Better learners use analogical problem solving sparingly. 1993.

Applications of simulated students

• STEPS: A Simulated, Tutorable Physics Student. 1995.
• Applications of simulated students: An exploration. 1994
• STEPS: A preliminary model of learning from a tutor. 1994.

Modeling qualitative physics cognition

• The acquisition of informal physics knowledge during formal physics training. 1997.

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Last update: October 21, 2006.