5. Research Findings
5.1 The analysis of the salad-and Coke-problem-solving processes showed that
self-explanation was a statistically significant predictor of performance in solving those
problems, with inference and clarification being the most important of the self explanation
categories. The important findings of the present study concern the unique
patterns of self-explanation we identified although the good problem solvers produced
more inferences and clarifications than the poor problem solvers, the poor problem
solvers were more likely to produce clarifications after inferences in contrast, the good
problem solvers were more likely to produce justifications after regulations, a pattern
that converges with previous studies indicating the cognitive benefits of meta-regulatory
activities.