This study attempted to develop a system for analyzing the processes students use in solving work problems and to investigate the relationships of these processes to other behavioral measures. The subjects in this study were 56 students of both sexes who had above average mental ability and who had just completed the eighth grade from two junior high schools. The students were interviewed individually and asked to think aloud as they solved a battery of mathematical problems. Among the findings of this study are the following: (1) measures of quantitative ability, mathematics achievement, word fluency, general reasoning, and a reflective conceptual tempo were positively correlated with using equations in solving word problems; (2) attitudes toward mathematics was uncorrelated with the coding system variables, as were, in general, self-report measures of plans for the future; and (3) although deduction was used more frequently than trial and error in solving work problems, the former was likely to result in an incorrect solution. (RP)