,theadditionalcomponentoftheworked-outexamplesinSituationByieldedastrikingdifference,namelyastrongeffectforthe “inventasolutionstrategy” group (SituationA1) andlittleornoeffectonlearningforthegroupthatwassimplyshownagraphicalsolution (SituationA2).
Theexperimentshowsthatalthoughthestudents' attempttoinventasolutionforthefirstproblem (SituationA1) didnothaveanyadvantageforsolvingthetargetproblem (SituationC) ascomparedtotellingthestudentsawayofsolvingit (SituationA2),theattempthadadefiniteadvantagewhenitcametolearningtosolvethetargetproblem (SituationB).Sothedifferentialeffectonthetransferproblemwasnotduetothefirstpartoftheexperiment (theinstructionaltreatment) nortothesecondpart (exposuretoalearningresource). (bycollapsingSituationsA1andA2intoeachother),B,andC,'s (1988) argumentforconsideringsetsofsituations,insteadofonlytwosituationsatatime,changingthesetmayimplythattheeffectofagiventaskonanothertaskwillchangeaswell.
ButwhatisthenatureoftherelationshipbetweenSituationsAandB? Noneofthestudentsintheinventiongroupcameupwiththecanonicalsolutionoftheproblem (standardizedscores),,,,andtheythennoticedcriticaldifferencesbetweenthem,,juxtaposingtheirownvagueideasaboutcentraltendencyandvariabilitywiththestandardstatisticalversionsofthesamephenomenaprovidedthemwithanothercontrast.
