| Abstract: | Studied training and transfer effects in combinatorial problem solving to explore the emergence of combinatorial competence as an aspect of the development of formal reasoning and to examine the effectiveness of a training procedure based on principles of "programmed discovery." 80 12-14 yr olds participated in a pretest, 2 training or placebo sessions, an immediate posttest, and a delayed posttest 2 mo later. Significant increases in combinatorial skill with age were shown, and the expression of this skill was significantly facilitated if problems involved "concrete" material of low complexity. With the oldest Ss, training produced significant improvements in performance on combinatorial tasks that were markedly different from the training items in both content and modality. Significant improvements over time and with practice were also evident with the older Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
