To investigate typicality effects in problem solving, two kinds of reading materials were constructed describing a universal but unfamiliar property of the livestock. The reading material given to the experimental group was to explain such property by referring to a high typicality instance (the pig). For the control group low typicality instance (the silk worm) was used. In the post test up to what extent subjects would adapt the given information in a reading material to solve problems was investigated. The main result was that the experimental group scored higher than the con trol group. The obtained result was discussed from the viewpoint of the mechanism underlying typicality effects.