ERROR AND TEMPORAL PATTERNS IN TOWER OF HANOI PERFORMANCE - COGNITIVEMECHANISMS AND INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES

Thirty-seven adult subjects were given a 15-move Tower of Hanoi (TOH) disk-transfer problem, for which accuracy, errors, and length of pause prior to a move were recorded, Subjects were also questioned as to wh ether and why they paused during problem solving. The majority of erro rs occurred at the Ist, 5th, and 9th moves and may reflect the use of maladaptive heuristics. Optimal performers increased their average pau se time significantly more before these 3 moves than did poor performe rs, particularly at the 9th move. Optimal performers and, to a lesser degree, self-correcting performers devoted a disproportionate amount o f time to the 3 problem junctures, The majority of subjects mentioned planning their moves during their pauses; however, this acknowledgment was not related to quality of performance. The nature of these planni ng responses suggests that working memory may be involved in performan ce on the TOH.