The Effect of Problem Presentation on Strategy Use and Mental Set in the Water Jar Task

This study explored how prior experience with a task influences both strategy use and the likelihood of experiencing mental set. Previous work found a relationship between strategy use and mental set in which participants who reported using more specific strategies were more likely to experience mental set compared to those who reported using more general strategies. This work suggests that differences in strategy use may account for differences in mental set. This study further tested the hypothesis that strategy use accounts for differences in mental set by manipulating the problems presented in the “set” phase. One manipulation was of the variability of the set problem solutions, in order to guide participants toward different levels of strategy specificity. The other manipulation was of the viability of the set problem solutions, in order to examine whether strategy specificity still predicts mental set when participants can develop strategies with a high level of specificity, but the strategies are not relevant for solving the critical and extinction problems. Strategy use mediated condition level differences in mental set for the solution variability manipulation, but not for the solution viability manipulation. Regardless of manipulation, when solvers use highly specific strategies, it increases their likelihood of experiencing mental set. However, increased variability when learning a task can reduce the likelihood of developing overly specified strategies and experiencing mental set.