AN IBM 1620 PROGRAM FOR ADMINISTERING A PROBLEM SOLVING TASK TO INDIVIDUAL SUBJECTS.

The report is a description of a program for an IBM 1620 computer which enables it to carry out the entire procedure of administering a complex problem solving task to individual human subjects. The experimental record is a typed dialogue between the subject and the computer-experimenter. The first section of the report is a description of the experimental procedure to be automated. The second section contains a description of P1, the original version of the experimenter program and a description of an experiment designed to assess P1. This experiment proved P1 to be a rather dismal failure in that it presented the subject with a task overburdened with procedural complications. Its description is included in this report as a guide to others who wish to automate their own experiments. The third section is a description of P2, the revised experimenter program, and a summary of two experiments which employed P2. Section four is a discussion of what has been learned from the attempt to automate a problem solving task together with some suggestions for future efforts in this area. The paper concludes with recommendations for a third version of the experimenter program which should be an even better problem administrator than P2. Author