Do Written Instructions Need Examples?

An inductive reasoning task was used to compare the relative efficacy of general, written instruction information to that of more specific example information. A conflict situation was set up in which subjects were given instructions that described one procedure and an example that described another procedure. The effectiveness of example and instruction information was measured by looking at which procedure subjects used. In the six experiments reported, most of the subjects consistently used the example information and disregarded the instructions. This example effect was not the result of the order of the instruction and example information, nor was it a result of the nature of information in the instructions and example. When the instruction information was stressed as very important, the example effect was attenuated but not eliminated. The results suggest that subjects may not fully process instructions because they believe that examples are more useful and important.