The Effect of Attentional Cues and Methods of Tuition on Adult Conceptual Learning

Summary

Although modeling has been shown to be effective for teaching conceptual behavior to children, Waters compared tuition methods for teaching a complex concept to college students in 1928 and found that a demonstration impeded performance. However, problems with his experiment could have produced misleading results. Tuition methods were confounded with attentional set, and his demonstration involved active task involvement rather than mere observation. The present study controlled these variables and assigned 120 male and female college students to one of 12 conditions. The results confirmed that attentional set is critical in solving the Waters task. Moreover, modeling did not impede performance. The relative effects of the tuition methods are discussed, as is the historical effect of the Waters study.