This experiment contrasts learning by solving problems with learning by studying examples, while attempting to control for the elaborations that accompany each solution step. Subjects were given different instructional materials for a set of probability problems. They were either provided with or asked to generate solutions, and they were either provided with or asked to create their own explanations for the solutions. Subjects were then tested on a set of related problems. Subjects in all four conditions exhibited good performance on the near transfer test problems. On the far transfer problems, however, subjects in two cells exhibited stronger performance: those solving and elaborating on their own and those receiving both solutions and elaborations from the experimenter. There also was an indication of a generation effect in the far transfer case, benefiting subjects who generated their own solutions. In addition, subjects' self-explanations on a particular concept were predictive of good performance on the corresponding subtask of the test problems.
The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education