谜语问题解决中线索的作用

The Role of Clues in Chinese Idiom Riddle Solving

汉语谜语在性质上属于顿悟问题,当谜语的谜底为汉语成语时,这样的谜语问题称为成语谜语问题。本研究探讨线索在成语谜语问题解决中的作用特点与方式。三个实验以汉语成语谜语问题为实验材料,采用了语义线索与规则线索,操纵了线索的有效性(有效线索占75%,无效线索占25%),以及线索呈现的时间长短(长时间即阈限上呈现线索(实验1),短时间(20ms)即阈限下呈现线索(实验2与实验3))两个因素。实验1与实验2的任务是要求被试写出成语谜语问题的答案(谜底),实验3则要求被试从6个备择答案中选择出正确的答案。被试为武汉某大学的206名低年级本科生。实验结果表明,(1)无论是阈限上还是阈限下呈现规则线索,有效规则线索对成语谜语问题的解决具有促进作用;(2)有效语义线索对谜语问题的解决具有促进作用,而且,阈限上有效语义线索对谜语问题解决的促进作用更大;(3)阈限上呈现两类无效线索时,它们对成语谜语问题的解决都具有干扰作用;但是,阈限下呈现两类无效线索时,它们对成语谜语问题的解决没有干扰作用。

Chinese riddle solving is one of the insight problems in which Chinese idioms frequently turn out to be the answers. This study was to investigate the role of clues used by problem solvers when given such riddles. Three experiments were conducted and idiom riddles were used as experimental materials. In all experiments, a 2 （semantic clue vs. rule clue）×2 （validity vs. invalidity） experimental design was adopted. In Experiment 1, all clues were presented above visual threshold. Participants were asked to figure out answers themselves according to each riddle and its clue. In Experiment 2, except that the clues were presented below visual threshold, the others was the same as that in Experiment 1. In both of these two experiments, the participants were first required to judge the emotional value of 160 idioms within 5 minutes, which include the answers of the riddles used in the experiments. In Experiment 3, participants were asked to make a choice among six options. There were 206 first-year and second-year college students participated in these experiments. The results were as follow： （1） The valid rule clues, which were presented either above threshold or below threshold, facilitated the process of Chinese idiom riddle solving. （2） The response accuracy was increased when the semantic clues were valid. Moreover, the clues presented above the threshold played a bigger role than those presented below the threshold. （3） An interference was found only when the invalid clues were presented above the threshold. Based on the theories and hypotheses about insight problem solving, we put forward a model to explain the process of Chinese riddle solving, which include three phases.