PREPARATION FOR PROBLEM SOLVING: STRUCTURAL VS. STRATEGY PRETRAINING,
Abstract
In an attempt to answer questions regarding performance improvement in complex applied problems, an experiment was designed to examine the effects of pretraining on the efficiency of concept attainment. Two principal varieties of pretraining were provided to groups of college students whose subsequent performance on five criterion tasks was compared with that of Ss who received no pretraining. The Ss were taught either to analyze problem materials into their structural components or to apply a strategy for the solution of concept attainment problems. In either case, the training was relatively extensive, consuming ten one-hour sessions for each S. The criterion battery comprised three typical laboratory concept attainment tasks of more than twenty problems each, one concept identification taks and a fifth task that required the attainment of sequential or temporal concepts. The dependent measures of principal interest revealed slight, reliable, but insubstantial increments in the performance of Ss given strategy pretraining but not for those given structure pretraining. The most powerful effect of strategy training was to increase dramatically the tendency of Ss to withhold hypotheses until sufficient information had been acquired to insure accuracy. The discrepancy between these results and those reported previously is considered and the utility of laboratory concept attainment tasks for applied research is questioned. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 1965
- Accession Number
- AD0619705
Entities
People
- David J. Chesler
- Edward A. Rundquist
- Harriet M. Braunstein
- John D. Ford Jr.
- William D. Rohwer
Organizations
- Naval Health Research Center