Tower of Hanoi

The Tower of Hanoi is a psychological problem solving task (a mathematical game or puzzle). It consists of three rods and a number of disks of different diameters, which can slide onto any rod. The puzzle starts with the disks stacked on one rod in order of decreasing size, the smallest at the top, thus approximating a conical shape. The objective of the puzzle is to move the entire stack to the last rod, obeying the following simple rules: 1) Only one disk may be moved at a time, 2) Each move consists of taking the upper disk from one of the stacks and placing it on top of another stack or an empty rod, and 3) No disk may be placed on top of a disk that is smaller than it. With 3 disks, the puzzle can be solved in 7 moves. The minimal number of moves required to solve a Tower of Hanoi puzzle is 2n-1, where n is the number of disks.

In NTR, a computerized version of the Tower of Hanoi was used.

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Keywords
Constructs
Waves
  • Young Netherlands Twin Register

  • YC_BS1
    •   C S
    9.0 years   From 2005-01-01 to 2005-01-01
    Mode of collection MeasurementsAndTests    Behavioral/cognitive task
    Analysis unit Individual
    References
    Simon, H. A. (1975). The functional equivalence of problem solving skills. Cognitive Psychology, 7(2), 268–288. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(75)90012-2
    Klahr, D., & Robinson, M. (1981). Formal assessment of problem-solving and planning processes in preschool children. Cognitive Psychology, 13(1), 113–148. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(81)90006-2
    You can also access this dataset using the API (see API Docs).