Abi. Bernardo, LANGUAGE FORMAT AND ANALOGICAL TRANSFER AMONG BILINGUAL PROBLEM SOLVERS IN THE PHILIPPINES, International journal of psychology, 33(1), 1998, pp. 33-44
Is analogical problem solving of bilinguals affected by the language i
n which the problem is given? Three experiments study whether the lang
uage used for the problem affects analogical transfer between word pro
blems among Filipino-English bilinguals. Subjects were given a set of
study problems all of which were either in Filipino or English. They w
ere then given a set of analogous transfer-test problems either in Fil
ipino or in English. Experiment 1 showed a language-compatibility effe
ct; transfer was better when the language of the study and transfer-te
st problems were the same. Experiments 2 to 3 studied the locus of the
effect. The data suggest that language compatibility facilitates the
retrieval of relevant, superficially similar problem information but d
oes not affect the process of applying the same problem information to
the new problem. The results are discussed in terms of their implicat
ions to problem-solving behaviour of bilinguals and to the education o
f bilingual students.