Accounting for variability in student responses to motion questions

We describe the results of an experiment conducted to test predictions about student responses to questions about motion based on an explicit model of student thinking in terms of the cuing of a variety of different physical intuitions or conceptual resources. This particular model allows us to account for observed variations in patterns of student responses in a way that positing the existence of fixed student conceptions about motion does not. As a result of the experiment, we suggest refinements of our model in order to better account for additional features of the student responses