The Effect of Incidental Hints when Problems Are Suspended before, during, or after an Impasse

Autor/inn/en	Moss, Jarrod; Kotovsky, Kenneth; Cagan, Jonathan
Titel	The Effect of Incidental Hints when Problems Are Suspended before, during, or after an Impasse
Quelle	In: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 37 (2011) 1, S.140-148 (9 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0278-7393
DOI	10.1037/a0021206
Schlagwörter	College Students; Experiments; Association (Psychology); Recall (Psychology); Federal Aid; Cues; Reaction Time; Problem Solving; Mississippi; Pennsylvania; Remote Associates Test + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Collegestudent; Erprobung; Assoziation; Abberufung; Stichwort; Reaktionsvermögen; Problemlösen
Abstract	Two studies examine how the time at which problem solving is suspended relative to an impasse affects the impact of incidental hints. An impasse is a point in problem solving at which a problem solver is not making progress and does not know how to proceed. In both studies, work on remote associates problems was suspended before an impasse was reached, at the time an impasse was reached, or after a period of continued work during an impasse. After problem solving was suspended on a set of problems, participants completed a lexical decision task before resuming work on the set of unsolved problems. For half of the problems suspended during each impasse state, solution words were presented as incidental hints in the lexical decision task. The proportion of initially unsolved problems that were solved after the intervening lexical decision task was greater when problem solving was suspended at the point an impasse was reached than when problem solving was suspended before an impasse or after a period of continued work during an impasse. These results suggest that suspending problem solving at the point of impasse may increase susceptibility to incidentally presented hints. The point of impasse may be an opportune time for hints because the problem has been explored but there has not been a large increase in fixation on failed solution attempts. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10