ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author presents a brief overview of the main interests of cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence (AI), as a backdrop for his reaction to the agenda. He begins with three goals: First, to attempt to represent the perspectives of the author's field in reaction to a research agenda. Second, to convey some of the excitement he felt over the ideas and the convergence of different research perspectives and paradigms that occurred during the development of this agenda. Third, to exhort any and all others interested in how algebra is learned and taught to think hard about how this agenda can be implemented in all areas of research and practice and to find pieces of the puzzle/quilt to work on. The goal of cognitive psychology is to formulate and test theories that model or explain how people perform cognitive functions—pattern recognition, attention, memory, problem solving, visual imagery, and language.
