ABSTRACT
The experiment was concerned with verbal mediation in problem solving with young children. The children were taught strategies for solving problems involving the choice of one of four concepts: color, size, shape, or number. The children were randomly assigned to three groups. One group vas taught a non-replacement strategy, a second group, a replacement strategy, and the third group acted as a control. The children in the non-replacement group were taught to hang four concept cards, which corresponded to the four concepts previously mentioned, on four hooks in front of them. In the replacement group the procedure was the same as in the non-replacement group; as were the cards and problems. The results were almost exactly as had been predicted from a mediational theory of learning. The children in the experimental groups learned to use the strategies. They transfered the strategies to new problems, and the transfer was best for the nonreplacement strategy.
