Abstract
47 college students were individually asked to form four equilateral triangles of the same size with 6 pencils, 3 of which already formed a triangle on the table. A cardboard pyramid served as a visual cue to one group, a cube to another, and no cues to a control group. The pyramid group solved the problem most quickly, and the cube group faster than the controls. Five students from the cube group and six from the control group did not solve in 30 minutes. When they were then shown the cardboard pyramid cue, all solved the problem. However, this time the original controls solved significantly faster than the original cube group, possibly because negative transfer arose from use of the cardboard cube which suggested three dimensions but led to inhibitory potential that generalized to the cardboard pyramid.
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