Domain Testing: Divide and Conquer - Testing Education

and how they apply the knowledge. The problems encountered with the procedural
style of teaching domain testing are discussed in Chapter 7.
3.02.02 Cognitive Strategies
Gagne et al. (1988) defined cognitive strategies, saying, “They are capabilities that
govern the individual’s own learning, remembering, and thinking behavior” (p. 45).
Every individual has their own internal methods of learning things. Cognitive
strategies control an individual’s internal mechanisms of learning and in turn, how
they learn (Gagne et al., 1988).
“Using an image link to learn a foreign equivalent to an English word” is
one of the examples Gagne et al. (1988) gave of a performance that demonstrates
use of cognitive strategies as one of the learning outcomes (p. 44). In the context of
software testing, an example of a cognitive strategy would be applying knowledge
of characteristics of different types of variables to identify variables of a given
program and mapping them to different variable types.
According to Gagne (1985), as learners begin to achieve intellectual skills
they are trying to develop internal strategies, finding ways to improve the way they
learn, think and grasp knowledge and skills.
3.02.03 Verbal Information
“Verbal information is the kind of knowledge we are able to state. It is knowing
that or declarative knowledge.” During our lifetime, we all constantly learn verbal
information or knowledge (Gagne et al., 1988, p. 46).
“Listing the seven major symptoms of cancer” is one of the examples
Driscoll (2000) gave of a performance that demonstrates learned capability of
verbal information (p. 350). In the context of software testing, an example of verbal
knowledge would be being able to list the different tasks involved with doing
domain testing.
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