Cognitive processes in the solution of three-term series problems

This study investigated the nature of strategies used in solving the three-term series problem. Three presentation modes (auditory, visual/sequential, and visual/simultaneous) were crossed with two question positions (before-premises and after-premises), for a total of six methods of problem presentation. Both high-spatial/imagal and low-spatial/imagal problems were employed, the assumption being that better performance on high-spatial/imagal problems reflected the use of a spatial/imagal strategy, while equal performance on both types of problems indicated the use of an alternative, perhaps verbal, strategy. It was hypothesized that different presentations would lead to differences in memory demands, input/processing interference, and mathemagenic behaviors, and thus to different problem-solving strategies. Response data and subjective reports confirmed this prediction. Results were discussed in terms of the Clark-Huttenlocher controversy (H. H. Clark, Linguistic processes in deductive reasoning, in Psychological Review, 1969, 76, 387--404; J. Huttenlocher, Constructing spatial images: A strategy in reasoning, Psychological Review, 1968, 75, 550--560).