Studying the effect of mental sets in solving anagram

Abstract

Introduction: Mental sets are clues which are already coded and stored in memory, and retrieved when needed. The present study investigated the role of mental sets in solving anagram problems.Methods: The design of this study is an experimental with repeated measurement design. The participants were 20 MA students and graduates chosen through voluntary sampling. Each of them were required to undertake four different varieties of measurement by anagram cards; names (people/country), sets (with/without) as the experimental instrument. Research data were analyzed through repeated measurements ANOVA test.Results: There was significant discrepancy between names of people and names of countries with and without set (p < 0.05). This was while, there was no significant difference between names of people and names of countries with set and names of people and names of countries without set.Conclusion: The presence of mental sets and clues facilitates the solving of anagrams. This readiness and clues should be presented in the coding stage in order for them to be remembered in the retrieval stage.