Tower of Hanoi: Evidence for the Cost of Goal Retrieval (2001)

John R. Anderson, Scott A. Douglass

Bibliographic Entry

Anderson, J. R. & Douglass, S. (2001). Tower of Hanoi: Evidence for the Cost of Goal Retrieval. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 27(6), 1331-1346.

Abstract

Past research on the Tower of Hanoi problem has provided clear evidence for the importance of goal-subgoal structures in problem solving. However, the nature of the traditional Tower of Hanoi problem makes it impossible to determine whether there is any special cost associated with storing or retrieving goals. A variation of the Tower of Hanoi problem is described that allows one to determine separately if there is an effect of how long a goal has to be retained on storage time or how long ago it was formed on retrieval time. This paradigm provides clear evidence for an effect of retention interval on retrieval time and not on storage time. An ACT-R (Anderson & Lebiere, 1998) simulation of this data is descirbed that treats goal memory as no different from other memories.

Full Text Formats

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Supplemental Files

• ACT-R 4.0 web-based simulations, model source code and experimental data spreadsheet

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