Conceptual transfer insimple insight problems

Lockhart, Robert S.; Lamon, Mary; Gick, Mary L.

doi:10.3758/bf03197743

Cited by 87 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…This distinction made between two kinds of problems has led to consideration that there are two kinds of problem-solving processes: planning and memorising under the constraint of cognitive load for welldefined problems (Anzaı¨& Simon, 1979;Kotovsky & Kushmerick, 1991;Simon, 1979), creativity, insight, and restructuring mental representations of the situation (and particularly the objects it comprises) for ill-defined problems (Duncker, 1945;Kohler, 1964;Lockhart, Lamon, & Gick, 1988;Mayer, 1983;Ohlsson, 1984aOhlsson, , 1984b. Richard, Poitrenaud, and Tijus (1993) have called this distinction into question.…”

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confidence: 99%

Implicit learning in rule induction and problem solving

Zanga¹,

Richard²,

Tijus

2004

Thinking & Reasoning

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studied the effect on rule discovery of having to plan actions or not in order to reach a goal state. This was done by asking participants to predict legal moves as in implicit learning tasks (Experiment 1) and by asking participants to make legal moves as in problem-solving tasks (Experiment 2). Our hypothesis was that having a specific goal state to reach has a dual effect on rule discovery. The first effect is positive and related to feedback from moves done in order to attain the goal: generalising the results of action and associating them to the conditions in which they were obtained allows discovery of the rule and learning it. The second effect is negative. In attempting to reach a specific goal, participants first tend to reduce the distance that separates the current state from the goal state (hill climbing) and so neglect the kind of exploration that facilitates rule and procedure discovery because this would seem to be a detour from the goal. Results show that having to plan actions improved performance in implicit learning tasks (Experiment 1), yet it impaired performance in problem-solving tasks (Experiment 2). Although implicit learning and problem solving are based on rule discovery, and entail noticing regularities in the material, in both cases, rule discovery processes appear to be task-dependent.

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confidence: 99%

Implicit learning in rule induction and problem solving

Zanga¹,

Richard²,

Tijus

2004

Thinking & Reasoning

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“…'s (1983) clue statements were transformed into puzzle or problem-oriented forms by Adams et aI. (1988) and Lockhart et al (1988). Compared with the statement forms, these conditions produced superior spontaneous transfer, according to predictions from the framework of transfer-appropriate processing.…”

Section: Problem Solving By Analogymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Against a tradition that has mainly shown poor transfer of solution methods when hints to use prior analogues have not been provided, a few studies point to the importance of transferappropriate processing (e.g., Adams et al, 1988; Gick & McGarry, 1992;Lockhart, Lamon, & Gick, 1988;Stein, Way, Benningfield, & Hedgecough, 1986). Consider a set of experiments by Needham and Begg (1991): Some of their subjects tried to solve training analogues before they were taught their solutions, while the others studied the analogues and tried to remember them before the solutions were taught.…”

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Solving problems by analogy: The benefits and detriments of hints and depressed moods

Hertel

Knoedler

1996

Memory & Cognition

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In Experiment 1,mildly depressed (dysphoric) and nondysphoric subjects tried to solve logic problems that were analogous to subsequent target problems; then they attempted target solutions with or without hints in the form of the anologues' themes. Target solutions were impaired by the hints in the nondysphoric group alone. Experiment 2A was a no-training control to verify that transfer did indeed occur. In Experiment 2B, all subjects received hints in the transfer phase; the training phase was either problem oriented (as in Experiment 1) or memory oriented. Again, nondysphoric subjects solved fewer problems following problem-oriented training than did both dysphoric subjects in that condition and nondysphoric subjects with memory-oriented training. Experiment 3 replicated the previous results in the nondysphoric samples. We interpret these findings within the transferappropriate processing framework.The domain of this research is problem solving by analogy to similar prior experience. Against a tradition that has mainly shown poor transfer of solution methods when hints to use prior analogues have not been provided, a few studies point to the importance of transferappropriate processing (e.g., Adams et al., 1988; Gick & McGarry, 1992;Lockhart, Lamon, & Gick, 1988;Stein, Way, Benningfield, & Hedgecough, 1986). Consider a set of experiments by Needham and Begg (1991): Some of their subjects tried to solve training analogues before they were taught their solutions, while the others studied the analogues and tried to remember them before the solutions were taught. Those who had tried to solve (mostly unsuccessfully) showed superior spontaneous (no-hint) transfer of the methods of solution to subsequent target problems. In the spirit of transfer-appropriate processing (Morris, Bransford, & Franks, 1977), attempting to solve on both occasions was more beneficial than attempting to remember on the first occasion and attempting to solve on the second.The specific focus of the present experiments was the nature ofthe memory component oftransfer in Needham and Begg's (1991) paradigm. We considered two possible ways in which memory for the training analogues might influence performance in the transfer phase: (1) Subjects might attempt deliberately to recall training problems A portion of Experiment I was conducted by the second author in partial fulfillment of Honors in Psychology. Experiment 28 was partly supported by the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health; manuscript preparation was supported by a Trinity University Summer Stipend to the first author. We are grateful to Mariana Garza, Kevin Gluck, Laurie Grams, Vickie Schafer, and Christine Winston for their service as experimenters and scorers. Robert Greene and two anonymous reviewers provided very helpful comments on a previous version of the article. Please address correspondence to P. T. Hertel, Department of Psychology, Trinity University, 715 Stadium Drive, San Antonio, TX 78212 (e-mail: phertel@trinity.edu).Copyright 1996 Psychonomic Society, Inc. 16with similar...

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“…As the emphasis in problemsolving research has shifted to the knowledge required to solve problems, increasing attention has been focused on questions about the access and use of such knowledge (e. g., Adams et al, 1988;Gentner & Landers, 1985;Gick & Holyoak, 1980Holyoak & Koh, 1987;Lockhart, Lamon, & Gick, 1988;Perfetto, Bransford, & Franks, 1983;Ross, 1984Ross, , 1987Ross, , 1989aRoss, , 1989bStein, Way, Benningfield, & Hedgecough, 1986;Weisberg, DeCamillo, & Phillips, 1978). A number of these studies have shown that subjects often fail to transfer relevant knowledge spontaneously to a new situation.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Research concerned with the failure to access relevant information has proceeded along two related lines. The first line has tried to identify the factors that might improve access, such as the way in which the relevant information is processed (e.g., Adams et al, 1988;Lockhart et al, 1988), surface similarity (e.g., Gentner & Landers, 1985;Holyoak & Koh, 1987;Ross, 1984Ross, , 1987Stein et al, 1986), context (Spencer & Weisberg, 1986), and the comparison of instances (Dellarosa, 1985;Gick & Holyoak, 1983). The second related line of research has probed the nature of the retrieval process in these problem-solving situations.…”

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confidence: 99%

The access of relevant information for solving problems

1989

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Two issues were investigated concerning the retrieval of recently acquired relevant information for solving riddle problems. First, although earlier research indicated that problem solvers often fail to retrieve relevant information unless they are explicitly informed of its relevance, Bowden (1985)suggested that uninformed subjects would benefit greatly from additional problemsolving time. In two experiments, we found that uninformed subjects solved more problems than did subjects who did not receive the information, but a simple model attributed this difference to these uninformed subjects "catching on" to the information's relevance after solving some problems. Second, the retrieval characteristics were examined by varying the proportion of problems for which clues were given. Informed subjects given clues for only half of the problems benefited (though perhaps not fully) from being informed, without incurring any cost from being misdirected on the unclued problems. The discussion focuses on some ways in which accessing relevant information may affect problem solving.How people access and use relevant knowledge is a central issue in cognition. As the emphasis in problemsolving research has shifted to the knowledge required to solve problems, increasing attention has been focused on questions about the access and use of such knowledge (e. g., Adams et al., 1988;Gentner & Landers, 1985; Gick & Holyoak, 1980Holyoak & Koh, 1987;Lockhart, Lamon, & Gick, 1988;Perfetto, Bransford, & Franks, 1983;Ross, 1984Ross, , 1987 Ross, , 1989a Ross, , 1989b Stein, Way, Benningfield, & Hedgecough, 1986; Weisberg, DeCamillo, & Phillips, 1978). A number of these studies have shown that subjects often fail to transfer relevant knowledge spontaneously to a new situation. Although this lack of transfer could be due either to failure to access the relevant information or to failure to use it once accessed, in many cases people fail to access the relevant information (though see Ross, 1987, 1989a, and Stein et al., 1986, for difficulties with the use of accessed information). These failures of access occur when the earlier information is analogous to the current problem (e.g., Gick & Holyoak, 1980 Reed, Ernst, & Banerji, 1974;Spencer & Weisberg, 1986) as well as when the earlier information is not analogous, but is very relevant to the current problem (e.g., Perfetto et al., 1983).It may be useful to make this idea more concrete with an example that is closely related to the current investigation. Perfetto et al. (1983) provided evidence that subThis research was supported by NSF Grant IST-8308670. We thank Doug Medin, Ed Shoben, Gordon Logan, and Dedre Gentner for discussions about this research. We also thank Robert Weisberg, Edward Bowden, and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful reviews, and Marna Smith for help in conducting and analyzing the experiments. Address correspondence and requests for reprints to Brian H. Ross, Department of Psychology, University of lllinois, 603 E. Daniel, Champaign, IL 61820. jects who are un...

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Conceptual transfer insimple insight problems

Cited by 87 publications

References 17 publications

Implicit learning in rule induction and problem solving

Implicit learning in rule induction and problem solving

Solving problems by analogy: The benefits and detriments of hints and depressed moods

The access of relevant information for solving problems

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