Acquisition of Problem Solving Strategies by Young Children, And Its Relation to Mental Age
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8223348 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Carolyn Stern (University of California, Los Angeles, corresponding author), Evan R Keislar (University of California, Los Angeles) |
| Year | 1967 |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1 |
| Publication date | 1967-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Educational Research Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-8312 • E-ISSN: 1935-1011 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1161719 |
| OpenAlex | W4238560357, W2047125347 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 18 |
The amount of prompting children should be given during problem solving is influenced by how much independence in attacking new problems they have already acquired. They may need a good deal of specific assistance (Wittrock, Keislar, and Stern, 1964) when they have not been taught how to discover principles on their own. However, it may be that children can be taught a method of testing several hypotheses and selecting the correct one in new problem situations, and thus be able to function effectively with a minimum of cueing. The object of the present investigation is to determine whether young children can be taught strategies for solving problems within a limited context. A basic approach to solving problems involves hypothesis-testing procedures. It may be that a single hypothesis is applied until it fails to work, at which point another hypothesis is tested. This has been characterized in gambler's terminology as a win-stay, lose-shift procedure. If the subject keeps track in a systematic manner of the hypotheses tested and rejected, his behavior might be considered non-replacement or intelligent guessing. Frequently, due to poor information processing or inadequate memory storage, hypotheses found to be incorrect are tried again at a later time. This trial-and-error behavior might be described as hypothesis-testing-with replacement, or blind guessing. While an appreciable proportion of successes are possible on a purely chance basis, neither of these approaches makes full use of the information available from knowledge of results. Where the nature of the problem permits, a better approach is for the learner to test several hypotheses on each trial. This procedure requires the individual to use knowledge of results both in pinpointing possible hypotheses and in eliminating those that are clearly inappropriate. At the same time, the reward or punishment effect of the feedback is postponed to the time when judgments can be based on information rather than chance. The learner may be more willing to explore new solutions if he does not become prematurely committed to a specific hypothesis. A number of investigators (Braley, 1963; Hovland and Weiss, 1953; Donaldson, 1959; Smoke, 1932) have indicated that most people do not
Cognitive psychology · Context (archaeology · Data mining · Developmental psychology · Independence (probability theory · Object (grammar · Relation (database · Statistics · Terminology · Test (biology · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Health and Well-being Studies · Healthcare Education and Workforce Issues · Mathematics · Problem Solving Skills Development · Psychology · Statistics Education and Methodologies
| Citations per year | 0.02 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1967 - 1967 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |