Influence of Verbalizing Task Rules on Their Transfer in Adults and Primary Schoolers

This study is dedicated to the role of verbalization in transferring previously found task solutions to analogical tasks in adults and primary schoolers. Recent research show that adult participants who verbalized solutions for induction tasks transferred found solutions to similar tasks faster than participants who did the tasks tacitly. Experiment 1 was conducted to define the existence of the effect in children. Subjects (N = 32, M = 8.25) were presented with 10 tasks and had to find the basis of classification by finding out the relevant feature for all objects in the groups. Subjects in verbalization condition verbalized the rule for each task, whereas the control one did all tasks tacitly. In the test phase subjects solved analogical tasks - the tasks with the same solutions as in the previous phase but with new objects. The results found no verbalization effect in primary schoolers. Experiment 2 was conducted to test the role of different types of verbal description of the rule in transferring rules to analogical tasks in adults (N = 50, M = 19.4) and primary schoolers (N = 44, M = 8.27). In abstract condition participants saw a set of problems which rules was formulated in geometric terms and defined which set of instances refer to. In concrete condition the same problems were presented with rules formulated in familiar words. Test phase included similar problems but with new instances, so participants should transfer the rules they learn earlier. The results showed that adults in concrete condition solved analogical tasks significantly faster than adults from the abstract condition. There were no difference between concrete and abstract conditions amongst primary schoolers. Two experimental studies show that the role of verbalization in transferring solutions to analogical tasks differs with age and appears predominantly in adult participants.