M. Hegarty et K. Steinhoff, INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES IN USE OF DIAGRAMS AS EXTERNAL MEMORY IN MECHANICAL REASONING, Learning and individual differences, 9(1), 1997, pp. 19-42
Participants in two experiments solved mechanical reasoning problems t
hat involved inferring the motion of components of mechanical systems
from static diagrams of the systems. Some participants were allowed to
make notes on the diagrams while solving these problems and others we
re not. Previous research shows that low-spatial individuals have diff
iculty solving these problems, possibly because they have limited spat
ial working memory capacity. We predicted that participants would make
notes on the diagram indicating the inferred motion of each component
and that making notes in this way would improve performance, particul
arly for low-spatial participants. Consistent with previous research (
Hegarty & Sims 1994), low-spatial participants made more errors than h
igh-spatial participants. Participants made more notes on problems tha
t placed high demands on working memory. Making notes on diagrams was
associated with more accurate performance of low-spatial participants,
but was not related to performance of high-spatial participants. The
results are discussed in terms of working memory limitations and compe
nsating metacognitive skills.