Problem Content Affects the Categorization and Solutions of Problems

Abstract

In many domains, the content of a problem (i.e., its surface cover story) provides useful clues as to the type of problem it is and its solution. Three experiments examined this role of problem content on the problem categorization and solution of algebra word problems with experienced subjects, by manipulating only the content of the problems. When a problem’s content was highly correlated with its deep structure (e.g., a content of cars driving for a distance–time– rate problem), people were able to categorize the problem after seeing a smaller portion of it compared to a baseline with contents uncorrelated to the problem deep structure. In addition, for more complex problems in which irrelevant information had been added, problem solving performance was higher and people showed greater sensitivity to the relevance of the information. When a problem’s content suggested a different (inappropriate) type of problem, people required a greater part of the problem to categorize it and were slower and less accurate at solving the problem. These results suggest that content may be influential even for experienced problem solvers.