engleski

The impact of length and solvability of anagrams on performance and metacognitive judgments

Anagrams are commonly used in the field of problem solving since they provide a number of possible experimental manipulations such as length, difficulty, and solvability. Recent trends in cognitive psychology emphasize the importance of metacognitive processes, which accompany human reasoning, decision making and problem solving. In this study our goal was to measure performance and metacognitive judgments while manipulating length and solvability of anagrams. Participants (N=27) attempted to solve a total of twelve anagrams in a 2 (short/long) × 2 (solvable/unsolvable) experiment. Initial judgments of solvability, response times, accuracy, and post-trial judgments of difficulty were recorded. For unsolvable anagrams the correct response was that the anagram was indeed unsolvable. Separate ANOVAs were calculated for each dependent variable. Analysis of response times showed that both main effects of length and solvability were significant. Participants were, in general, faster for shorter and for solvable anagrams. Additionally, the interaction effect showed that the difference between shorter and longer anagrams was significantly larger for solvable compared to unsolvable anagrams. The only significant effect on accuracy was the length with a higher accuracy for shorter anagrams. For judgments of solvability length was again the only significant effect with shorter anagrams initially judged as more solvable. Finally, the analysis of post-trial judgments of difficulty showed both main effects were significant. Solvable and shorter anagrams were judged as easier in general. The interaction effect was also significant since the difference in judgments of difficulty between shorter and longer anagrams was significant only for solvable anagrams. In total, participants seem to rely on extremely salient cues (length) when making initial metacognitive judgments while post-trial judgments are impacted by more factors. Further experiments should provide a more in-depth study of differences depending on solvability and accuracy (e.g. differences in metacognitive judgments between correctly solved solvable anagrams and correctly recognized unsolvable anagrams

problem solving, anagrams, metacognition, unsolvable problems

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