Implicit and Explicit Learning of Task Regularities in Problem Solving
Hilde Haider and Peter A. Frensch
How can we help students to discover new principles and to understand how, why and when theses principles are applicable? On the basis of our lab-based experiments, we argue that the discovery of new principles can be improved, first, by repeatedly confronting students with tasks that contain the same construction principle. As a side effect of task processing, students might implicitly develop a sensitivity towards the construction principle. Second, confronting students with tasks that does not contain the regular construction principle then might violate students’ expectation. We assume that this violation of an expectation triggers explicit search processes which are necessary to discover and understand the underlying principle.