Studies of human problem solving have traditionally used deterministic tasks that require the execution of a systematic series of steps to reach a rational and optimal solution. Most real-world problems, however, are characterized by uncertainty, the need to consider an enormous number of variables and possible courses of action at each stage in…

THE THREE MAIN PURPOSES OF THIS RESEARCH IN PROBLEM-SOLVING WERE (1) TO EVALUATE GROUP PERFORMANCE VERSUS PERFORMANCE NORMS BASED ON THE PROPERTIES OF THE PROBLEM, (2) TO STUDY INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE, AND (3) TO INVESTIGATE THE EFFECT THAT A PARTICULAR EDUCATIONAL LEVEL HAS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF THESE PROBLEMS. THE SUBJECTS USED CONSISTED OF A…

A task was developed to differentiate the reasoning of elementary school students in fifth, sixth, and seventh grades. Subjects completed 16 matrices containing two, three, or four dimensions and varying in the embeddedness of the dimensions. They also solved a formal operational task assessing ability to isolate, exclude, and include variables.…

Evidence for suggested basic differences in the abstract reasoning capacity of Negro and Caucasian children includes consistent findings of significantly poorer performance by Negroes on Raven's Progressive Matrices (PM). This study investigated the PM performance of Negro children taught algebra via a discovery method of instruction. It was…