Subgoal length versus full solution length in predicting Tower of Hanoi problem-solving performance

Abstract

To determine whether performance on three-disk Tower of Hanoi problems is related to solution length (number of steps to transfer all disks to their goal pegs in a minimum path sequence) or to length of the first subgoal (number of steps to transfer the first disk to its goal peg in a minimum path sequence), we devised two sets of problems in which solution length was held constant but subgoal length was varied by one step. The performance of groups of nonretarded children and retarded young adults on these problems indicated that subgoal length was the primary variable. Unexpectedly, initial response latency (planning time) was unrelated to performance level.