Eye Movements in solving letter series completion problems

Abstract

Letter series completion problems (LSC-problems) are common tasks to measure peoples' ability in problem solving. The process of inductive reasoning in solving such problems was investigated in an experiment by the means of eye movement analysis. We developed an eye movement model on the basis of a process model by Simon and Kotovsky (1963). Our model assigns specific eye movements to three different solution steps. The predictions of the model are empirically examined and the results show that eye movements can serve as an indicator of the predicted solution steps.