Year: 2003
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Evaluation is generally considered to enhance problem solving and is strongly correlated with increasing expertise.Moreover, manipulations that increase the active processing of source problems generally promote analogical transfer of solution principles.Therefore, we expected that an instruction to evaluate the information given in problem and solution exemplars would enhance analogical problem solving.However, in Experiment 1, evaluation was found to have a detrimental effect on transfer compared with control groups instructed to summarize source problems and solutions, even when participants received additional instructions to memorize source problems for later recall.In Experiment 2, the impairing effects of instructions to evaluate were not reduced by making participants engage in evaluation when solving the target problem, a test of a 'transfer appropriate processing' explanation.We propose that instructions to evaluate lead participants to focus upon some elements of source problems and solutions at the expense of other elements required for effective transfer.Evaluation, the set of processes involved in judging problem-related information under dimensions such as importance, value, appropriateness and scope, is generally seen as fundamental to human intellectual performance.It is central to the TOTE (Test-Operate-Test-Exit) unit proposed by Miller, Galanter and Pribram (1960) as the basis of exploratory problemsolving behaviour, and is considered to be beneficial when seeking solutions to complex real-world problems (Klein, 1999).For example, Ashton and Kennedy (2002) found that evaluation instructions led to a reduction in the use of temporally salient but otherwise inappropriate data when making auditing decisions.Evaluation is also invoked in accounts of expertise in domains such as management (Easton, 1992), medicine (Nezu & Nezu, 1995), and design (Darses, 2002;Ormerod & Ridgeway, 1999).Indeed, the proportion of problem-solving time devoted to evaluative activity has been shown to increase with domain expertise (Chi, Feltovich & Glaser, 1981;Schoenfeld, 1992).Like evaluation, analogy is also seen as fundamental to problem solving (Gick & Holyoak, 1983;Anderson,
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1576301021