Skip to main content

Cognitive Investigations into Knowledge Representation in Engineering Design

  • Conference paper
Design Computing and Cognition ’04

Abstract

As engineering students gain experience and become experts in their domain, the structure and content of their knowledge changes. Two studies are presented that examine differences in knowledge representation among freshman and senior engineering students. The first study uses a recall paradigm, and the second uses Latent Semantic Analysis to analyze brief descriptions written by engineering students. Both studies find that the most prominent differences between these two groups of students are their representations of the function of electromechanical components and how these components interact. The findings from these studies highlight some ways in which the structure and content of mental representations of design knowledge differ with experience.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Atman, CJ, Chimka, JR, Bursic, KM and Nachtmann, HL: 1999, A comparison of freshman and senior engineering design processes, Design Studies 20: 131–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ball, LJ, Evans, JST and Dennis, I: 1994, Cognitive processes in engineering design: A longitudinal study, Ergonomics 37(11): 1753–1786.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ball, LJ, Evans, JSBT, Dennis, I and Ormerod, TC: 1997, Problem-solving strategies and expertise in engineering design, Thinking & Reasoning 3(4): 247–270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ball, LJ and Ormerod, TC: 1995, Structured and opportunistic processing in design - a critical discussion, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 43(1): 131–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chase, WG and Simon, HA: 1973, Perception in chess, Cognitive Psychology 4(1): 55–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chi, MTH, Feltovich, PJ and Glaser, R: 1981, Categorization and representation of physics problems by experts and novices, Cognitive Science 5(2): 121–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deerwester, S, Dumais, ST, Furnas, GW and Landauer, TK: 1990, Indexing by latent semantic analysis, Journal of the American Society for Information Science 41(6):391–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Egan, DE and Schwartz, BJ: 1979, Chunking in recall of symbolic drawings, Memory & Cognition 7(2): 149–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gobet, F: 1998, Expert memory: A comparison of four theories, Cognition 66(2): 115–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goel, V: 1995, Sketches of Thought, MIT Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heiser, J and Tversky, B: 2002, Diagrams and descriptions in acquiring complex systems in WD Gray and CD Schunn (eds), 24th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ, pp. 447–452.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill, A, Song, S, Dong, A and Agogino, A: 2001, Identifying shared understanding in design using document analysis, 13th International Conference on Design Theory and Methodology, Pittsburgh, PA, DETC2001/DTM-21713.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kavakli, M and Gero, J: 2001, Sketching as mental imagery processing, Design Studies 22(4): 347–364.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kavakli, M and Gero, J: 2002, The structure of concurrent cognitive actions: A case study on novice and expert designers, Design Studies 23(1): 25–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Landauer, TK and Dumais, ST: 1997, A solution to Plato’s problem: The latent semantic analysis theory of acquisition, induction, and representation of knowledge, Psychological Review 104(2): 211–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larkin, J, McDermott, J, Simon, DP and Simon, HA: 1980, Expert and novice performance in solving physics problems, Science 208(4450): 1335–1342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nisbett, RE, Fong, GT, Lehman, DR and Cheng, PW: 1987, Teaching reasoning, Science 238(4827): 625–631.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quesada, JF, Kintsch, W and Gomez, E: 2002, A theory of complex problem solving using latent semantic analysis in WD Gray and CD Schunn (eds), 24th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ, pp. 750–755.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reitman, JS: 1976, Skilled perception in go: Deducing memory structures from inter-response times, Cognitive Psychology 8(3): 336–356.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richman, HB, Staszewski, JJ and Simon, HA: 1995, Simulation of expert memory using EPAM IV, Psychological Review 102(2): 305–330.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, RP and Leong, A: 1998, An observational study of design team process: A comparison of student and professional engineers, Journal of Mechanical Design 120(4): 636–642.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stone, RB and Wood, KL: 2000, Development of a functional basis for design, Journal of Mechanical Design 122(4): 359–370.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suwa, M, Purcell, T and Gero, J: 1998, Macroscopic analysis of design processes based on a scheme for coding designers’ cognitive actions, Design Studies 19(4): 455–483.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suwa, M and Tversky, B: 1997, What do architects and students perceive in their design sketches? A protocol analysis, Design Studies 18(4): 385–403.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2004 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this paper

Cite this paper

Moss, J., Kotovsky, K., Cagan, J. (2004). Cognitive Investigations into Knowledge Representation in Engineering Design. In: Gero, J.S. (eds) Design Computing and Cognition ’04. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2393-4_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2393-4_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-6650-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-2393-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics