Abstract
Schmid, U. & Kaup, B. (1995). Analoges Lernen beim rekursiven Programmieren,
Kognitionswissenschaft, 5, 31-41.
Analogical acquisition of knowledge is characterized as learning with examples. To solve a given problem, subjects have to map the structures of target and example, identifying the structural similarities. In a next step they have to adapt the example solution to the new problem. The structural similarity between examples and problems to be solved has an impact on success of problem solving and on the formation of abstract schemes for the problem class. We report a study, in which novice programming students were presented with example problems while acquiring recursive programming skills. Thereby the degree of similarity between example and target problem was varied. Additionally, part of the subjects were presented with information about the structural similarities between example and target problems. We could show that a high degree of similarity between example and target problem increases success of problem solving as well as success of learning transfer to generalized problems. On the other hand did subjects who were given no information about structural similarities acquire more knowledge about structural similarities acquire more knowledge about relevant features of recursive functions. Theses results suggest, that mapping and adaptation support different aspects of knowledge acquisition.
Barbara Kaup