New Experimental Attempts at Preventing Mechanization in Problem Solving

Luchins, Abraham S.; Luchins, Edith H.

doi:10.1080/00221309.1950.9920160

Cited by 145 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…As both Galizio (1979) and Hackenberg and Joker (1994) have demonstrated, however, this insensitivity can itself be understood in terms of the subjects' prior experience with rules and instructions. In general, the results cited are consistent with the view of Skinner, mentioned above and with results from classic experiments on problem solving reported by Luchins (1942) and by Luchins and Luchins (1950).…”

Section: Rule-governed and Contingency-shaped Behaviorsupporting

confidence: 82%

Behavior-analytic approaches to decision making

Fantino

2004

Behavioural Processes

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Behavior analysis has much to offer the study of phenomena in the area of judgement and decision making. We review several research areas that should continue to profit from a behavior-analytic approach, including the relative merit of contingency-based and rulegoverned instruction of solving algebra and analogy problems, and the role of conditioned reinforcement and the inter-trial interval in a type of Prisoner's Dilemma game. We focus on two additional areas: (1) the study of base-rate neglect, a notorious reasoning fallacy and (2) the study of the sunk-cost effect, which characterizes illconceived investment decisions. In each of these two cases we review studies with humans and pigeons as subjects.

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Section: Rule-governed and Contingency-shaped Behaviorsupporting

confidence: 82%

Behavior-analytic approaches to decision making

Fantino

2004

Behavioural Processes

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“…The idea that the hierarchical control structure for a task sequence constitutes part of the task set is reminiscent of research by Luchins and Luchins (1950) on problem solving. In their experiments, subjects had to determine how to obtain a specific volume of fluid by pouring fluid into and out of containers that varied in size.…”

Section: Task Setmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hierarchical control of cognitive processes: Switching tasks in sequences.

Schneider

Logan

2006

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

118

163

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Hierarchical control of cognitive processes was studied by examining the relationship between sequenceand task-level processing in the performance of explicit, memorized task sequences. In 4 experiments, switch costs in task-switching performance were perturbed by sequence initiation times that varied with sequence complexity, preparation time, and type of sequence transition (repetition or switch). Hierarchical control was inferred from these sequence initiation time effects and the recurrent finding of no switch cost at the first serial position across sequences, the point at which sequence-level processes are likely active in maintaining or instantiating a hierarchical control structure in working memory. These findings resonate with past research on motor programs and serial memory and provide new insights into the concepts of task set and control.

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“…The building sticks task (BST; Lovett & Anderson, 1996) is a problem-solving task similar to the classic water jars task (Luchins & Luchins, 1950). For a given BST problem, participants must add and subtract an unlimited supply of three different-sized building sticks to create a stick of the desired length (see Figure 1, initial state).…”

Section: The Building Sticks Taskmentioning

confidence: 99%

Awareness and working memory in strategy adaptivity

2001

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The world is an ever-changing place, and tasks that we perform repeatedly frequently change in their characteristics. How do we adapt to such a changing world? One method is by changing our strategy for performing the task at hand. As aspects of a task change, the optimal strategy often changes, so adapting one's strategies is helpful. For example, using the World-Wide Web to answer a question is becoming an increasingly successful strategy in many domains.There is an important twist in this characterization of how people adapt through changing strategies: Any given person almost never switches from using only one single strategy A to using only a different single strategy B. Instead, examinations of performance in a wide range of domains have shown that almost everyone uses many different strategies for a given task at a given point in time (Reder, 1982;Siegler, 1996). Thus, when people adapt to changing task characteristics, there is change in the distribution of how they use their strategies. For example, several years ago, a person searching for a new phone number might have used the strategy of calling directory assistance 50% of the time and using a phone book 50% of the time, whereas today that same person might call directory assistance 20% of the time, use a phone book 30% of the time, and use http://bigfoot.com 50% of the time. The important consequence of multiple-strategy use is that a model of changing strategy selections must be imbedded within a model of distributional strategy selection.Researchers have proposed several different models of strategy choice and strategy change (Anderson & Lebiere, 1998;Lovett & Anderson, 1996;Reder, 1982Reder, , 1987Reder, , 1988Reder & Schunn, 1996;Siegler & Shipley, 1995;Siegler & Shrager, 1984). Although there are significant differences among these models, there is an important commonality: Each model assumes that people keep track of the base rates of success of the different strategies and prefer the strategies that have higher success base rates (similar to Thorndike's, 1913, law of effect). This account of processing implies that, as the task characteristics change, the individual will experience different success base rates for each strategy and so learn to prefer different strategies.Despite the existence of several models of strategy choice, many basic questions remain about the mechanism by which people adapt their strategy use in response to changing success base rates. This paper attempts to address two of these basic questions. One question concerns where the information about strategy success rates is stored: explicitly in working memory or in some more implicit long-term storage? Most models of strategy choice do not describe where the information is stored. However, since many of these models posit no decay or interference to the base-rate information (Lovett & Anderson, 1996;Siegler & Shipley, 1995;Siegler & Shrager, 1984), one could reasonably conclude that the information was assumed to be in long-term storage rather than in To further the unde...

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New Experimental Attempts at Preventing Mechanization in Problem Solving

Cited by 145 publications

References 4 publications

Behavior-analytic approaches to decision making

Behavior-analytic approaches to decision making

Hierarchical control of cognitive processes: Switching tasks in sequences.

Awareness and working memory in strategy adaptivity

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