Abstract
The purpose of the present investigation of the generalization of acquired knowledge was to study the effects of instruction with multiple examples on the reception learning of scientific concepts. In experimental classes, instructors explained the dynamic properties of air pressure to 66 undergraduates, using experimental examples of air pressure phenomena. The students were then asked to solve problems, in order to assess the extent to which shared similarity between the examples and the problems affected their adaptation of their acquired knowledge. The main results were as follows: (1) when few examples were presented, the adaptability of the acquired knowledge depended on the extent of surface similarity; (2) when more examples were presented, the range of adaptation of knowledge was expanded to those problems that were similar in underlying structure to the examples, even though they differed in surface manifestation. These findings suggest that the observed effect of presenting multiple examples was caused by reconstruction and elaboration of criteria to determine the range of adaptation of knowledge in reference to the similarity of the examples to the problems presented.
