INFLUENCE OF LANGUAGE ON SOLVING 3-TERM SERIES PROBLEMS

Tested for 3 linguistic processes which had been previously proposed to account for the influence of language on deductive reasoning. 100 undergraduates solved 64 different forms of the 3-term series problem with 10 sec. allowed/problem. The kind and relative number of errors made support the existence of an implicit problem-solving strategy containing the 3 proposed linguistic processes: (1) interpreting the propositions and question of a problem in terms of their deep structure relations, (2) retaining the information in this form, and (3) later searching memory for information that is congruent in deep structure with the information asked for in the question. For some problems, this strategy leads to longer solution times, hence more errors. For many problems, it also leads to preliminary solutions that show up as specific errors. (37 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.