Influence of University course on solving the Tower of Hanoi test

• Autor(a) principal: Rocha, Ivo
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Outros Autores: Ribeiro, Filipa
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.34632/cadernosdesaude.2012.2830

The Tower of Hanoi is a neuropsychological test of executive functioning, which provides clear evidence of the importance of creating structures with goals and sub -goals in solving problems. That is, mentally draw a path between the initial and final state, allowing to anticipate events and their consequences, as well as monitoring the proximity to the ultimate goal (Eysenck & Keane, 2007). This study aims to determine the timing and ability to solve the test in two different university courses, Electrical Engineering, and Letters (Portuguese and Lusophone Studies). We depart from the assumption that the university influences how students solve problems by adapting to the goals and themes that are learned during their time. We placed the hypothesis that students of the engineering course would solve the test in less time and for less moves, that students of Literature. The results corroborate the hypothesis and thus demonstrate greater capacity planning, use of strategic thinking, problem solving and cognitive flexibility in Electrical Engineering students.