Role of Ability and Extroversion in Concept Attainment of Individuals Trained in Heterogeneous or Homogeneous Personality Groups

Abstract

Subjects stratified by ability and extroversion initially attained concepts in homogeneous (all introverts or all extroverts) or heterogeneous (one-half members extroverts) personality groups. Concepts were attained individually in a subsequent transfer stage. Training in heterogeneous groups resulted in better transfer performance than did training in homogeneous groups only for low-ability Ss. A satisfactory account included assumptions that a low-ability S is not likely to develop a solution strategy on his own and that presence of an extrovert in a training group increases verbalization of strategies some of which are solution-relevant in the transfer stage.