ABSTRACT
Over the last several years, cognitive psychology and, more generally, cognitive science have undertaken the analysis of cognitive tasks and of learning in a fashion that acknowledges greater psychological complexity than earlier traditions. There has been increasing attention to the fine structure of abilities underlying task performance, and on the processes by which these abilities are acquired. This work has included attention to the kinds of complex learning that take place in schools (e.g., Burton, 1982, and VanLehn, 1990, on the acquisition of skill in subtraction). There has also been a flowering of new, complex tasks intended to assess learning outcomes. These new tasks are, in a direct sense, strong criticisms of the technologies of multiple-choice item response and even of the meaningfulness of dichotomous scoring of open-ended task responses.
