Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

One important finding in physics education is that very often students enter physics courses with misconceptions about the domain. A n often raised, but hardly ever thoroughly investigated question is whether and how students' misconceptions in physics come into play in solving formal textbook problems which ask for a precise quantitative solution. W e developed a cognitive computer model of the role qualitative physics knowledge plays in formal physics problem solving. O n the basis of the model it cannot only be hypothesized where misconceptions might come into play during formal physics problem solving, but also which correct qualitative physics knowledge should be applied instead in order to guide the use of quantitative physics knowledge efficiently and successfully. In particular, the model predicts that the application of misconceptions prevents the results of qualitative problem analyses from being exploited to construct additionally required formal, quantitative physics knowledge. A n empirical investigation confirmed that misconceptions frequently affect formal physics problem solving in the way predicted by the model. Commonly, subjects who applied misconceptions during problem solving reached an impasse when they tried to express the results of their qualitative problem analyses in quantitative terms. Most of the subjects were not able to resolve such an impasse successfully.