New ways to solve problems.
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Hospital Units↗
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The family meets the hospital. Predicting the family's perception of the treatment program from its problem solving style.
A family's perception of a treatment program may determine whether ir becomes productively engaged or destructively withdrawn. A theory of family types, in conjunction with a standardized laboratory problem solving procedure, was used to predict the nature of families' shared perceptions of a psychiatric ward. The individual and shared perceptions of thirty families were determined by means of a specially designed Q-sort. Two dimensions of problem solving behavior successfully predicted significant differences between families in their shared perceptions. Configuration, or the family's capacity to derive effective solutions in the laboratory, predicted the subtlety to their perception of the ward. Coordination, or the capacity of family members to dovetail their problem solving effort with one another, predicted the family's sense of comfort and engagement in the ward setting.
Adolescent↗
Adolescent-parent attachments and family problem-solving styles.
Variation in exploratory and collaborative behavior among family members define different problem-solving styles or "paradigms" in families. Similar characteristics distinguish patterns of attachment within dyads. This suggests an association between these phenomena. The hypothesis was tested in a laboratory study of families with young adolescents. Using the Reiss Card Sort Procedure (CSP) and a newly developed scheme for classifying adolescent attachments, it was demonstrated that particular problem-solving styles were linked to specific patterns of adolescent-parent attachments. An association of paradigms and attachment patterns may afford a new perspective on the dialectical interplay between individual and family development. The probabilities of paradigm-attachment association could prove useful when choosing an intervention model for family therapy.
Adolescent↗
The effect of one night without sleep on problem-solving and immediate recall.
The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of spending one night without sleep on the performance of complex cognitive tasks, such as problem-solving, in comparison with a purely short-term memory task. One type of task investigated was immediate free recall, assumed to reflect the holding capacity of the working memory. The other type of task investigated was represented by syntactical reasoning and problem-solving tasks, assumed to reflect the processing (the mental transformation of input) and monitoring capacity of the working memory. Two experiments with a repeated-measures design were performed. Experiment 1 showed a significant decline in performance as a function of sleep loss on Raven's progressive matrices, a problem-solving task. No other main effect of sleep loss was found. Experiment 2 had a different order between tasks than Experiment 1 and the time without sleep was increased. A number-series induction task was also used in Experiment 2. A significant, negative effect of sleep loss in performance on Raven's progressive matrices was found in Experiment 2. The effects of sleep loss on the other tasks were nonsignificant. It is suggested that Raven's progressive-matrices task reflects the ability to monitor encoding operations (selective attention) and to monitor mental "computations".
Adult↗
Do underrepresented minority medical students differ from non-minority students in problem-solving ability?
BACKGROUND: In medical education, examinations must assess a logical progression toward problem-solving skills. Differences in cognitive development between underrepresented minority students (URMs) and non-URMs may affect examination performance and subsequent attrition rates. PURPOSE: The authors investigated URM and non-URM performances by retrospectively analyzing success rates on exam items of differing cognitive demand. METHOD: Mean correct responses to exam items classified as Recall, Interpretation, or Problem-Solving questions were calculated. Both URM and non-URM groups were stratified by grade point average (GPA) and scores on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). Differences were investigated with analysis of variance and general linear models. RESULTS: For all students, performance levels decreased as the cognitive demands of the exam items increased. When stratified by GPA and MCAT score, several important differences were found between URM and non-URM performance. CONCLUSIONS: Because cognitive measures fail to account for the majority of performance differences, noncognitive attributes must contribute to the poorer performance of URMs.
Chicago↗
Goal specificity effects on hypothesis testing in problem solving.
Previous research has found that having a nonspecific goal (NSG) leads to better problem solving and transfer than having a specific goal (SG). To distinguish between the various explanations of this effect requires direct evidence showing how a NSG affects a participant's behaviour. Therefore we collected verbal protocols from participants learning to control a linear system consisting of 3 outputs by manipulating 3 inputs. This system was simpler than the one we had used previously, so in Exp. 1 we generalized our earlier goal specificity findings to this system. In Exp. 2 protocol analysis confirmed our prediction (based on dual-space theories of problem solving) that NSG participants focused on hypothesis testing whereas SG participants focused on the goal. However, this difference only emerged over time. We also replicated the goal specificity effect on performance and showed that giving participants a hypothesis to test improved performance.
Goals↗
The effect of self-observation on children's problem solving.
The effects of self-observation on children's problem solving were investigated. Children (N = 124) aged 6-8 years attempted to solve the 3-disc Tower of Hanoi problem. After pretesting, children were grouped into those who (a) practiced solving the(c) observed problem independently, (b) received instruction on the most efficient solution, a videotape recording of their previous attempt, and (d) served as a control. Subsequently, children were immediately tested on the 3-disc problem and a more difficult 4-disc problem. They were tested again 1 week later. Performance was most improved for children inwere maintained the practice and video conditions on the 4-disc problem. Improvements over the 1-week interval. Unique characteristics of video self-observation are discussed.
Child↗
An integrated problem-solving curriculum design for physical therapy education.
Development of and experience with an integrated problem-solving curriculum design for physical therapy education is presented. The basic themes which relate discrete subject areas and a method of organizing the content around the themes are described. Problem-solving learning experiences are sequenced from the simple to the complex around the kind of situations found in clinical practice. Clinical education is integrated throughout the curriculum, and a calendar is developed based on the content of the learning experiences rather than the traditional university calendar.
Curriculum↗
Problem solving, recall, and mapping relations in isomorphic transfer and nonisomorphic transfer among preschoolers and elementary school children.
Analogical problem-solving processes were studied in 4 experiments using 5- and 7-move scheduling problems. Subjects were preschool and elementary school children. On each acquisition trial, the child heard a list of statements representing the exact series of moves necessary to solve the problem and was immediately asked to recall the list. Physical materials representing the problem were then produced and the child was asked to solve it. In transfer only setting/constraint information was provided prior to problem solving. In the first study, mapping processes were explored in nonisomorphic transfer tasks with different constraints and problem spaces. Mapping processes were very good, except when a feature of the base was mapped to a misleading cue in the transfer problems. The second study revealed that combining the problem-solving task with the recall task facilitated isomorphic transfer but not nonisomorphic transfer. The 2 remaining studies revealed that preschool children show excellent isomorphic transfer in both 5- and 7-move problems. The major developmental difference was in how the children ordered the propositions in their recall protocols. The findings were discussed in terms of problem spaces, flexibility of transfer, and developmental theory.
Child↗
Planning and problem solving skills following focal frontal brain lesions in childhood: analysis using the Tower of London.
Problem solving skills were investigated in children with focal lesions using the Tower of London test (TOL; Shallice, 1982). The scoring procedure was elaborated from previous studies to delineate separate processes contributing to overall performance in children. Thirty-one children with focal frontal pathology, 18 children with focal pathology in other brain regions (extra-frontal), 17 children with generalized pathology and 38 healthy children participated in the study. Results suggest a distributed network for problem solving skills, particularly cognitive flexibility and goal setting skills. Within the frontal group, children with lesions involving the right pre-frontal cortex had greatest problems with self-regulation, with rule breaks most common among this group. As these skills develop relatively early in comparison to other aspects of executive function, right pre-frontal regions may play a particularly important role in the development of executive skills in childhood, with damage to these regions rendering children vulnerable to a range of cognitive and social deficits.
Adolescent↗
Relationship between small group problem-solving activity and lectures in health science curricula.
Components of problem-based education, such as small group teaching, are being implemented in diverse health curricula. Implementation, however, is often motivated by the intuitive appeal of many problem-based learning components, when what is needed is the detailed examination of how these components support students' integration of knowledge as well as continuity of their learning experiences. This study presents an investigation of the relationship between lecture and small group teaching (SGT) in a medical curriculum. Four problem-oriented SGT sessions representing diverse topics in the first-year curriculum and their corresponding lectures were videotaped and analyzed using techniques of concept mapping, where the broad concepts from the lectures were identified and matched to the case-specific concepts in the small group sessions. The results show that lectures function as an anchor for the students' discussion of issues relevant to clinical problem-solving and interventions in small group sessions. These discussions extended to contextual aspects of clinical practice that were not dealt with in the lectures, such as ethical/cultural issues around the treatment of patients. Furthermore, small group environments were found to promote discussions that allowed the integration of information from different sources and encompassed concepts across a number of disciplines. These results suggest that carefully designed small group sessions serve the purposes of 1) illustrating broader concepts in lectures to case-specific, clinically relevant problem-solving and 2) promoting knowledge integration from diverse sources of information. The implications of these results for learning and reasoning in health science curricula are discussed.
Cardiology↗
The integration of inpatient treatment and transitional day hospital: application of a problem-solving approach.
Because of the trend in inpatient psychiatry toward a marked decrease in length of hospitalization, clinicians must reconceptualize the manner in which psychosocial treatments are organized in the inpatient milieu. Considerable data suggest that problem-solving therapies may be a productive way to integrate the groups and activities in the therapeutic milieu. This paper describes the application of a problem-solving approach to the therapeutic milieu and indicates that the therapeutic gains from this approach may be enhanced by combining inpatient treatment with a transitional day hospital program. We identify the empirical underpinnings of this model and describe how it has been used to treat a schizophrenic patient. We suggest that problem-solving therapies are effective for promoting behavioral change on the general psychiatric inpatient unit.
Adult↗
Problem-solving and spatial working memory in patients with schizophrenia and with focal frontal and temporal lobe lesions.
Problem-solving ability was investigated in 25 DSM-IIIR schizophrenic (SC) patients using the Tower of Hanoi (TOH) task. Their performance was compared to that of: (1) 22 patients with neurosurgical unilateral prefrontal lesions, 11 left (LF) and 10 right hemisphere (RF); (2) 38 patients with unilateral temporal lobectomies, 19 left (LT) and 19 right (RT); and (3) 44 matched control subjects. Like the RT and LF group, the schizophrenics were significantly impaired on the TOH. The deficit shown by the schizophrenic group was equivalent whether or not the problems to be solved included goal-subgoal conflicts, unlike the LF group who were impaired specifically on these problems. The nature of the SC deficit was also distinct from that of the RT group, in that the problem-solving deficit remained after controlling for the effects of spatial memory performance. This study indicates, therefore, that neither focal frontal nor temporal lobe damage sustained in adult life is a sufficient explanation for the problem-solving deficits found in patients with schizophrenia.
Adult↗
Difficulties in family therapy evaluation. I. A comparison of insight vs. problem-solving approaches. II. Design critique and recommendations.
In Part 1, an outcome study comparing two methods of family treatment, is reported. Families were randomly assigned to one of two forms of conjoint therapy: an Insight-oriented treatment (N = 10) or a Problem-Solving intervention (N = 10). The results on self-report measures of family functioning indicate that the Problem-Solving intervention produced more favorable changes after three months. Experienced therapists did better than inexperienced therapists in the Insight-treatment condition but level of experience did not make a difference in the Problem-Solving therapy. A group of eight families who dropped out of the Insight-treatment group provided data on correlates of premature termination. In Part II, the study is critically reviewed. The practical obstacles to implementing an experimental design in a clinic setting are considered. Special attention is given to issues involving the selection of treatment and control conditions: sampling and the measurement of outcome. Alternatives to experimental designs are considered.
Adolescent↗
The relation between problem categorization and problem solving among experts and novices.
These investigations were conducted to examine the relationship between problem-solving ability and the criteria used to decide that two classical mechanics problems would be solved similarly. We began by comparing experts and novices on a similarity judgment task and found that the experts predominantly relied on the problems' deep structures in deciding on similarity of solution, although the presence of surface-feature similarity had a clear adverse effect on performance. The novices relied predominantly on surface features, but were capable of using the problems' deep structures under certain conditions. In a second experiment, we compared groups of novices, at the same level of experience, who tended to employ different types of reasoning in making similarity judgments. Compared to novices who relied predominantly on surface features, novices who made greater use of principles tended to categorize problems similarly to how experts categorized them, as well as score higher in problem solving. These results suggest that principles play a fundamental role in the organization of conceptual and procedural knowledge for good problem solvers at all levels.
Adult↗
A graph-dynamic model of the power law of practice and the problem-solving fan-effect.
Numerous human learning phenomena have been observed and captured by individual laws, but no unified theory of learning has succeeded in accounting for these observations. A theory and model are proposed that account for two of these phenomena: the power law of practice and the problem-solving fan-effect. The power law of practice states that the speed of performance of a task will improve as a power of the number of times that the task is performed. The power law resulting from two sorts of problem-solving changes, addition of operators to the problem-space graph and alterations in the decision procedure used to decide which operator to apply at a particular state, is empirically demonstrated. The model provides an analytic account for both of these sources of the power law. The model also predicts a problem-solving fan-effect, slowdown during practice caused by an increase in the difficulty of making useful decisions between possible paths, which is also found empirically.
Decision Making↗
An automated method for studying drug effects on problem solving by small laboratory animals.
The design and construction details of a method for studying problem solving by small animals is described. The form of motivation is escape from water in a T-shaped apparatus, thus eliminating possible confounding effects involved when food or water intake is restricted below normal. The arm of the T in which escape is possible is alternated from trial to trial. Two levels of problem solving are evaluated: an animal can minimize escape time during a series of trials by alternating its responses, i.e., 100% reinforcement; alternatively, it may choose the same alley on each trial, which results in only 50% reinforcement. The time to make the decision and the total time are automatically recorded. We have demonstrated the sensitivity of the method to hypofunctioning of the cholinergic neurotransmitter system, an analogy to behavioral changes accompanying progressive degenerative dementia. Two effects of the hypocholinergic state were especially notable: animals in this state have significantly greater difficulty in shifting from the "primitive" position habit to the more complex alternation solution, and preliminary experiments suggest that certain pharmacological treatments may be effective in overcoming this deficiency.
Animals↗
Social problem-solving skills training for incarcerated offenders. A treatment manual.
This article describes a social problem-solving skills intervention for incarcerated adult offenders. The program includes pragmatic, progressive skill building through the use of direct instructions, role-plays with performance feedback, modeling, behavior rehearsal, and positive reinforcement. In addition to these treatment components, the empirically derived approach employs standardized assessment measures to identify deficits and to evaluate treatment outcome. Assessment data are directly used to determine behavior change in such areas as conversational skills, positive and negative assertion, anger management, problem solving, empathy, and stress inoculation. Social skills training is included to modify verbal, nonverbal, and paralinguistic behavioral components. In addition, training elements related to anger reduction and stress management are utilized.
Adult↗