DO Contrasting Examples Facilitate Schema Acquisition and Analogical Transfer?

The present experiment explored the effects of a third, contrasting example on 1) the acquisition of a problem solving schema from two examples, and 2) subsequent analogical transfer to a novel problem. A "near miss" ( Winston, 1975 ) contrast was used which differed from the target soluti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Canadian Journal of Psychology 1992-12, Vol.46 (4), p.539-550
Main Authors: GICK, MARY L, PATERSON, KATHERINE
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acquisition
Analogy
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition & reasoning
Cognition. Intelligence
Convergent thinking
Decision making
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Problem Solving
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reasoning. Problem solving
Schema
Stimulus Similarity
Storytelling
Strategies
Citations: Items that cite this one
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Summary:The present experiment explored the effects of a third, contrasting example on 1) the acquisition of a problem solving schema from two examples, and 2) subsequent analogical transfer to a novel problem. A "near miss" ( Winston, 1975 ) contrast was used which differed from the target solution only on one critical solution dimension. The near miss contrast facilitated the generation of schemas that captured many aspects of the problem solution. In addition, inclusion of the near miss resulted in schema quality predictive of transfer, following a context change of an interpolated problem. The two effects of schema facilitation and schema quality predicting transfer were not obtained when the third story was unrelated to the two examples in surface and solution features. The role of the near-miss contrast in highlighting important solution features in examples is discussed.
ISSN:0008-4255
1196-1961
1878-7290
DOI:10.1037/h0084333