An Effect of Probe Trials on Selection Strategies in Problem Solving

The use of probe trials to investigate hypothesis-testing behavior was investigated as a variable that may affect the hypothesis-testing process itself. Shift behavior by 96 male and female college students in an optional shift task was used as the dependent variable because it could be evaluated independent of the presence or absence of probe trials. The number of options, two or three, available on the shift task was also manipulated in order to test the hypothesis that, if probe trials cause the adoption of a more efficient shift strategy like Local Consistency, an increase in options would result in a decrease in within-dimension shifts. The data were in support of the hypothesis that probe trials have an effect on an individual's strategy for selecting hypotheses following negative feedback: 89% of the no-probe-trial participants made within-dimension shifts, with no effect following from an increase in options, while 56% of the probe-trial participants made within-dimension shifts, with a decrease from 71% to 42% when the number of options were increased. It was suggested that probe trials may act like thorough instructions by helping an individual to define more clearly a problem space thereby allowing him or her to adopt more efficient selection strategies

Affect (linguistics · Cognitive psychology · Consistency (knowledge bases · Dimension (graph theory · Econometrics · Economics · Selection (genetic algorithm · Task (project management · Artificial Intelligence · Child and Animal Learning Development · Cognitive Science and Mapping · Communication · Computer Science · Mathematics · Psychology · Social Psychology · Visual and Cognitive Learning Processes

• An Ontogeny of Optional Shift Behavior

  Tracy S Kendler, Howard H Kendler•Child Development•1970

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