STRATEGIC PROCESSING IN DYNAMIC SPATIAL REASONING TASKS

Four experiments investigated performance differences in dynamic spati al reasoning that reflect differences in cognitive strategies. In Expe riment 1, verbal protocols obtained during execution of the arrival-ti me task revealed a systematic relationship between performance and str ategy use. High-performance subjects were more likely than low-perform ance subjects to use and integrate key information about object veloci ty and travel distance. Experiment 2 and 3 further showed that verbal and visual feedback, respectively, improve judgment accuracy when stim ulus conditions necessitate the integration of object velocity and tra vel distance information, but not when distance information alone is s ufficient to make the judgment. Experiment 4 established the stability of the feedback effects and demonstrated that individual differences in velocity-judgment ability predict the capacity to profit from feedb ack. The results suggest a tendency to neglect information regarding r elative object velocity when making judgments of arrival-time.