Effects of video source presentation and cue retrieval on analogical problem solving

Abstract

A total of 315 students (age 17–19 years old) of a vocational college in Singapore participated in a study to find out the effectiveness of multiple source representations of emotions in analogical problem solving. Four experiments were designed with multiple source representations: In experiment 1, the participants read a story (source analogue) and solved a social interaction problem; in experiment 2, a video; in experiment 3, a video with scaffold annotations and in experiment 4, a script and a video. In each experiment, two conditions were used: with cue to the source analogue and without cue to it. In each condition, there were 35 participants. A group of participants (n=35) who did not expose to the source analogue served as the control group. The performance of analogical problem solving of the participants was measured in three ways: selection of appropriate solutions, identifying reasons for the selected solutions and articulating surface similar vocabulary. The participants scored significantly higher in the cue condition than in the without cue or control condition. When emotions were represented using video with annotations, there was significant improvement in scores of performance in all aspects. The findings suggest the essentiality to choose and use creative and effective designs of multimodal source analogue presentations in analogical problem solving.