Performance expectations and the initiation of problem solving attempts

Abstract

It is hypothesized that persons ranked by performance expectations will also be ranked by latency times for the initiation of problem solving attempts. A discrete state, continuous time Markov model is proposed as a representation of this hypothesis. To test the hypothesis, an experiment was conducted in which two subjects were on repeated occasions given a simultaneous opportunity to initiate a solution to a word association problem. The hypothesis was confirmed although the model itself did not prove completely accurate. Some directions are suggested for modification and possible improvement of the model.