The present study was intended to investigate the applicability of the
behavioristic analysis of selection strategies (BASS) to the problem solving situation. The tasks given to
Ss were detection of the figure designated ‘dax’ by the
E among the 32 figures used. In every trial, the
S was once allowed to ask the
E whether ‘dax’ was contained in the group of figures selected at
S's option. The
S was instructed to select figures repeatedly so that he could find ‘dax’ in the smallest number of trials possible. Two experimental conditions were used. The task in Cond. I did not need the
S's memory loading for the outcome of preceding selections, and inversely, the task in Cond. II needed it. A total of forty medical undergraduate students served as
Ss and each of them was given three tasks in each condition. Each response was classified into one of the nine
strategic elements that were defined on the basis of the probability with which the selected instance would be positive, and each sequence of the
strategic elements was classified into one of the fourteen
strategic types. Furthermore, the sequences of the
strategic elements were vincentized into eight sections. The main results were as follows.
1) The frequency of appearance of E was the highest among the all elements, and that of G
(-) ranked next in both conditions. However, the percent appearances of E gradually increased along the vincentized sections, in contrast with a gradual decrease with G
(-). These trends were analyzed in comparison to the expected percent appearances of the
strategic elements calculated on the assumption of random responses. As regards the distribution of the
strategic types, the appearance of {E} was the most frequent and that of {G
(-)} ranked next in both conditions.
2) The percent appearances of E in Cond. I were higher than those of E in Cond. II in all the eight vincentized sections. With respect to the distribution of the
strategic types, the number of the
Ss who used {E} in the Cond. I was greater than in the Cond. II.
3) Generally the
Ss who used {E} needed fewer trials to solve the problems than the
Ss who used {G
(-)}. Both the
areas of error in memory and the
redundant components were larger in the responses of the
Ss who were late in solving the problems.
4) It seemed that the numbers of the hypotheses selected by the
Ss showed a sort of curvilinear regression on the numbers of remaining hypotheses instead of showing a monotonically increasing function.
5) As regards to the ingredients contained in a response such as the
perfect or imperfect error in memory and the
objective or
subjective redundant component, it was found that the occurrence of these ingredients were slightly more frequent in the responses occurring near the middle of the problem solving processes.
Lastly, the availability of several indices adopted in the
BASS was discussed from the methodological point of view.
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