German T P, Defeyter M A
Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Colchester, England.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2000 Dec;7(4):707-12. doi: 10.3758/bf03213010.
In the candle problem (Duncker, 1945), subjects must attach a candle to a vertical surface, using only a box of tacks and a book of matches. Subjects exhibit functional fixedness by failing, or being slow, to make use of one object (the tack box) as a support, rather than as a container, in their solutions. This failure to produce alternate functions is measured against improved performance when the tack box is presented empty rather than full of tacks (i.e., not preutilized as a container). Using an analogous task, we show that functional fixedness can be demonstrated in older children (6- and 7-year-olds); they are significantly slower to use a box as a support when its containment function has been demonstrated than when it has not. However, younger children (5-year-olds) are immune to this effect, showing no advantage when the standard function is not demonstrated. Moreover, their performance under conditions of preutilization is better than that of both older groups. These results are interpreted in terms of children's developing intuitions about function and the effects of past experience on problem solving.
在蜡烛问题（邓克，1945年）中，实验对象必须仅用一盒图钉和一本火柴将蜡烛固定在垂直表面上。实验对象表现出功能固着，即在解决问题时未能或缓慢地将一个物体（图钉盒）用作支撑物而非容器。当图钉盒是空的而不是装满图钉（即未预先用作容器）时，根据其表现的改善情况来衡量这种未能产生替代功能的情况。使用类似的任务，我们表明功能固着在年龄较大的儿童（6岁和7岁）中也会出现；当展示了图钉盒的容纳功能后，他们将其用作支撑物的速度明显比未展示时要慢。然而，年龄较小的儿童（5岁）不受这种影响，当未展示标准功能时，他们没有表现出优势。此外，他们在预先使用条件下的表现优于两个年龄较大的组。这些结果是根据儿童对功能的发展直觉以及过去经验对解决问题的影响来解释的。
