An Empirical Study of the Ability to Generalize

Complex tasks for use in human problem-solving research.

“…This is to be differentiated from a series of problems as that phrase was used in the preceding section, in that in a series of problems each is independent of the others, whereas in a series of steps, what the subject discovers on one step is, ideally, used on the next step. A nice example of a problem containing several steps is provided by Making the Last Draw (task 24), where the subject learns to solve a problem with successively larger num-bers of manipulanda and where he typically makes his generalizations about the method more and more inclusive as he goes along. Another example is given in Simrnel's Weighing the Coins (task 18), where the subject has to identify the odd coin from among eight, then from among nine, then from twenty-five.…”

Learning to generalize.

“…10. Using levers of the first class placed in equilibrium (27), or the correlation array with the mean lines drawn in, the problem is developed for the re-discovery of the principle of moments. 11.…”

Learning in children.

“…Lack of previous experience with levers is, however, probably the real explanation. G. M. Peterson (1932) used somewhat similar lever problems, but on a verbal basis. His subjects were children between the ages of 132 and 168 months.…”