RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FUNCTIONAL PRINCIPLES AND WEIGHTED AVERAGE COMPUTATION: COMPARTMENTALIZATION OR INTEGRATION?

The present study investigated the relationship between knowledge of functional principles and knowledge of weighted averages. Weighted average knowledge is used in estimating answers to mixture problems, and the present study examined two different methods of training people in estimation proficiency. One training method, the principles method, utilized principles of range, monotonicity, and linearity. Another training method was the formula method. The study compared the effectiveness of the two procedures in improving subjects' performance on estimation and graph identification tasks. It was predicted that formula instruction would provide subjects with a more effective means by which to accomplish the estimation task, whereas principles instruction would improve performance on the graph identification task. Results showed formula instruction to be more effective in improving accuracy on the estimation task, but neither method proved helpful on the graph identification task. Knowledge of functional principles and knowledge of weighted averages appeared compartmentalized (i.e., separate).