ABSTRACT
The first thing to be gained is, of course, an opportunity to obtain information appropriate to the objectives of ones inquiry. One may wish to choose an instance at any given point in concept attainment that can tell one the most about what the concept might be. The benefits in cognitive economy to be gained by using this strategy are striking. The first of these is that by its use the subject is enabled to disregard completely the bewildering business of eliminating possible hypotheses from the domain of 255 possible concepts in terms of which he may group instances. The purpose of the study was to see how various strategies fare when they are used in situations of increasing cognitive strain. In sum, a subject working "in his head" must find some means of reducing cognitive strain; at least this is more of a problem than it is for a subject working "on the board.".
