ON INTRODUCING SUPRAMINIMAL DATA TO ITEMS WHOSE SOLUTION DEMANDS THE USE OF INDIRECT PROCEDURES
ALISON C. CAMPBELL · British Journal of Psychology · 1968
A study was undertaken to determine the effects of incorporating supraminimal data, i.e. data over and above those logically sufficient for solution, into code items whose solution requires the use of ‘indirect’ procedures involving the identification of certain coded words via the elimination of all alternative possibilities. Supraminimal data relevant to item solution were found to impede the solution process, but not to a statistically significant degree (at the 0·05 significance level). Supraminimal data not relevant to item solution had a more deleterious effect, being found significantly to impede the solution process at the 0·01 significance level. The study further confirms that problems whose solution demands the use of indirect (eliminative) procedures are intrinsically difficult for undergraduate subjects. It is concluded that when problems are intrinsically difficult for the subjects at hand then the presence of supraminimal data will impede item solution and lead to longer solution times. This will be true for supraminimal data relevant to problem solution, and even more so for supraminimal data not relevant.