In water-jug problems, presenting information about available moves and their consequences did not enhance planning, though looping moves reliably decreased¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r? · q2
Currency · newest study 1991 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

Reading the evidence codes

q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.

This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.

q2 i? Providing move-availability information did not result in dramatically reduced legal moves, indicating additional information did not enhance the likelihood of planning. → Ahmad Tarmizi 1991 q2 i? A reliable reduction in looping moves was detected for the move-availability group, serving as a sensitive measure of planning. → Ahmad Tarmizi 1991 (2)

Evidence¶

Ahmad Tarmizi 1991¶

Ahmad Tarmizi, Rohani. (1991). Guidance During Mathematical Problem Solving. Doctoral thesis, University of New South Wales. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/69310

q2 · i? · causal · r?

The thesis reports, citing Atwood, Masson and Polson's experiment on water-jug problems comparing control, move-availability and memory condition groups, that "the additional information did not result in dramatically reduced legal moves". No effect size is printed.

"Comparisons between the control and move-availability condition groups showed that the additional information did not result in dramatically reduced legal moves in finding solution to the problem."

Ahmad Tarmizi 1991 (2)¶

Ahmad Tarmizi, Rohani. (1991). Guidance During Mathematical Problem Solving. Doctoral thesis, University of New South Wales. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/69310

q2 · i? · causal · r?

In the same Atwood, Masson and Polson experiment as reported in the thesis, "a reliable reduction in looping moves was detected for the move-availability group", which the authors treated as a sensitive measure of planning. No effect size is printed.

"However, a reliable reduction in looping moves was detected for the move-availability group. This suggested that the numbers of looping moves could be used as a reliable measure"

Discussion¶

Functional fixedness — treating an object's or idea's function as fixed — blocks solutions that require reinterpreting it. — related

Page metadata

Field	Value
`type`	`claim`
`id`	`move-availability-information-did-not-enhance-water-jug-planning`
`title`	`In water-jug problems, presenting information about available moves and their consequences did not enhance planning, though looping moves reliably decreased`
`description`	`In water-jug problems, presenting information about available moves and their consequences did not enhance planning, though looping moves reliably decreased`
`status`	`review`
`evidence_strength`	`weak`
`newest_evidence`	`1991`
`generated`	by `process:wiki-ingest` on `2026-10-16`
`trust`	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
`sources`	2 — `ahmad-tarmizi-1991`, `ahmad-tarmizi-1991-2`

Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.