Silver (39) found that successful problem solvers were more likely to categorize math
problems on the basis of their underlying similarities in mathematical structure. Wilson
(50) found that general heuristics had utility only when preceded by task specific
heuristics. The task specific heuristics were often specific to the problem domain, such as
the tactic most students develop in working with trigonometric identities to "convert all
expressions to functions of sine and cosine and do algebraic simplification.