ABSTRACT
A major intent of the conference was to focus attention on instructional science and to begin to suggest the role(s) cognitive research and theory may play in the enterprise. The recognition that subjects can adopt many radically different methods to accomplish a task, depending on their background knowledge and minor task details, has changed research perspectives and provided knowledge and techniques of possibly greater relevance. It provides a good example of how a research situation may be used to further our understanding of cognitive processes and to provide information important for designing instruction. In individualized programs, materials are organized into modules, and progress is monitored by module tests usually covering a limited number of objectives. Because the major issue concerns how people organize information and use processes to solve problems and learn, complicated tasks that are interesting have been selected for studying the mental processes involved.
