Effects of type of instruction on solution of psychological self-help problems

Information in self-help books is typically presented in one of three formats: didactic information, examples, or practice problems. The present study examined the effects of information format on the solution of personal problems. Four test problems were given to 200 subjects recruited from introductory psychology classes. Each of ten groups received a different type of information immediately prior to solving each test problem. Three of the groups received information in Didactic (D), Example (E), and Practice Problem (P) formats, respectively, while a control group received no information (NI). Six other groups (DD, DE, DP, EE, EP, and PP) received combinations of two sets of information prior to each test problem. The letters that designate each of these groups represent the formats in which the two sets of information were presented. A Ryan-Einot-Gabriel-Welsch multiple-range analysis indicated that groups EE, DP, EP, and DE obtained significantly higher scores than NI. Examples were effective as instructional material when presented with other information and when presented in pairs. Practice problems were effective when combined with other types of information but not when presented with other practice problems.