*Teaching Procedures IDENTIFIERS Research Reports

A study on the applicability of Snyder's 1968 prototheory of instructional efficiency to a complex problem-solving situation was made, using 120 sixth grade students of three geographically separated Pennsylvania schools in 1972. Four task groups, 30 subjects (SS) each, were formed by randomly assigning four task arrangements to Ss in answering a genetics problem. The task varied in number of information items (hints) presented, either four or eight, and amount of **learning structure * used..The structure was made different by instructing Ss to read either in an arbitrary order or mandatory order..To reduce errors, a researcher-constructed machine was used to present the problem and hints and record students ' responses and verbal expressions..Two revised efficiency formulas, respectively equivalent to Snyder*s two original formulas, were introduced. Data about the four groups were analyzed to compar