An exploratory investigation of the relationship between cerebral dominance and problem solving strategies used by selected high school chemistry students

The purpose of this investigation was to explore the relationship between cerebral dominance and problem solving strategies used by high school chemistry students. Cerebral dominance was determined by dichotic listening, tachistoscopic viewing, and SOLAT. The dichotic listening task required the subjects to report the syllable heard best when two syllables were presented simultaneously, one to each ear, via headphones. Tachistoscopic viewing required the subjects to identify words that were briefly flashed to the right or left of a point at which the subjects were fixating. SOLAT, a written questionnaire, required subjects to report learning style preferences on a variety of tasks.

The problem solving task was conducted using a clinical mode, in which the subjects attempted to solve five problems aloud in the investigator's presence. On the basis of the problem solving task, the subjects were classified as either algorithmic or heuristic problem solvers, and a chi-square analysis was performed to determine if cerebral dominance was related to problem solving strategies.

The results of this study indicated that the three measures of cerebral dominance did not correlate significantly with each other even though the results of the individual measures agreed well with results previously reported by other researchers. It was concluded that the three tasks are apparently measuring different phenomena, and there is a need for more valid and reliable measures of cerebral dominance. A relationship between cerebral dominance, as measured by SOLAT, and problem solving strategies used by subjects was determined to be statistically significant, However, the relationship between the subjects’ problem solving strategies and school attended made it impossible to draw a definitive conclusion concerning the relationship of hemisphericity to problem solving strategy. The association between problem solving strategies and schooling implies that teaching style may have a strong influence on students’ problem solving methodology.

Observations based on the data from this study indicate that students should receive instruction in algorithmic and heuristic problem solving methods. The method that is best for a particular student depends on the success attained from using each method as well as the individual preferences of the students.