Overt vs Covert Problem Solving: 3. Reversing the Direction of a “Swimming Fish”

Abstract

Twenty college students, equally divided into overt- and covert-problem-solving groups were individually asked to reverse the swimming direction of a “fish” formed with 8 match-sticks already on a table by relocating only 3 of those matches. Time was taken with a stop-watch. Results are: (1) Overt solving is significantly more efficient than the covert method in terms of both group mean and median times as well as paired comparisons between individuals holding equivalent ranks in the two groups. (2) There are individual differences in times to solve among subjects within groups; the range is wider in the covert than in the overt solving group. Relative advantages of the two methods are discussed.