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PubMed1977

Problem solving cases in teaching of applied pathology.

A "problem solving case" method of teaching practical pathology is described, illustrated and compared with more traditional teaching methods. This method offers many advantages-the most important being that it shows the effect of pathological lesions in an actual patient, thus emphasizing the relevance of pathology to clinical medicine. Other advantages are that self-assessmetn is encouraged; guidance is given on the depth of knowledge expected from a student; student response is favourable; no elaborate or expensive equipment is required; the method is economic in the use of staff time, and it is very flexible in use in terms both of time and place.

Autopsy↗
PubMed1997

The development and evaluation of an adaptable computer aided instruction(CAI) program for acquiring problem solving skills in biochemistry on the WWW: The "BioChem Thinker".

BioChem Thinker is a CAI program that was developed to enhance problem solving skills and ability to integrate knowledge in biochemistry for medical and dental students. The program runs on a WWW browser. BioChem Thinker is adaptable, it enables the teacher to create a new problem solving assignment, or edit existing assignments without in-depth knowledge of computer programming. This provides teachers with greater independence and flexibility so as to be able to adapt the program to their own course requirements. The program was implemented and evaluated in the 3rd year biochemistry course of The Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School. The tool used to develop Biochem Thinker can be utilized to develop similar CAI in other biomedical areas.

Biochemistry↗
PubMed1998

Gender differences in the dual-task effects on autobiographical memory retrieval during social problem solving.

A dual-task paradigm was used to explore the effects of cognitive load on social problem solving and autobiographical memory retrieval. The role that gender may play in mediating the relationship was also examined. Participants performed a secondary task concurrently with two primary tasks: (a) a cueing task, and (b) the Means-End Problem-Solving (MEPS) Task, during which they were required to attend to the memories retrieved during solution generation. Two dual-task conditions were employed in order that two levels of secondary task difficulty could be explored. Level of difficulty proved to be an important factor in the effects of resource reduction on the two primary tasks. Retrieval during the MEPS was effected by both the easy and difficult secondary task whereas retrieval on the cueing task was affected by the difficult task only. The results also showed that females (in contrast to males) favoured a more detailed SPS style using a specific memory database. Consequently, under central executive pressure, females' performance was significantly affected while males' performance remained largely unchanged.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Gender influences on preschool children's social problem-solving strategies.

The authors investigated gender influences on the nature and competency of preschool children's social problem-solving strategies. Preschool-age children (N = 179; 91 boys, 88 girls) responded to hypothetical social situations designed to assess their social problem-solving skills in the areas of provocation, peer group entry, and sharing or taking turns. Results indicated that, overall, girls' responses were more competent (i.e., reflective of successful functioning with peers) than those of boys, and girls' strategies were less likely to involve retaliation or verbal or physical aggression. The competency of the children's responses also varied with the gender of the target child. Findings are discussed in terms of the influence of gender-related social experiences on the types of strategies and behaviors that may be viewed as competent for boys and girls of preschool age.

Aggression↗
PubMed1997

Social problem solving in hyperactive-aggressive children: how and what they think in conditions of automatic and controlled processing.

Examined how and what children think under conditions of automatic and controlled processing within the context of social problem solving. In a condition that elicited automatic processing, hyperactive-aggressive children did not differ in being able to identify the components of a problem or in the number of solutions generated to solve a problem, but were more aggressive in the types of solutions generated, as compared to nonhyperactive-nonaggressive children. Furthermore, in a condition eliciting controlled processing, hyperactive-aggressive children did not differ in identifying problem components, generating solutions, or in anticipating outcomes for solutions, but were less able to anticipate consequences, and were more aggressive in choosing a best solution to solve a problem, as compared to nonhyperactive-nonaggressive children. The study demonstrated a relation between problem-solving codes that discriminated between groups, and overall child adjustment. Implications for social problem-solving interventions are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Problem-solving in real-life-type situations: the effects of anterior and posterior lesions on performance.

Clinical studies have described patients who show marked impairments in everyday life, including planning, problem-solving and decision-making. Several factors potentially contribute to such impairments, including difficulties in generating possible problem solutions, and difficulties in selecting an appropriate solution. The present study describes the performance of participants with unilateral anterior or posterior lesions compared to healthy controls in ability to solve real-life-type problems. These covered a range of everyday interpersonal situations, and were presented both in video and story format. Participants also carried out a set of more abstract neuropsychological tests. Those with brain lesions showed impairment relative to controls in both everyday problem-solving and on more abstract tests involving executive function and memory. The anterior group was impaired on more aspects of everyday problem-solving than the posterior group, showing reduced fluency in generating possible solutions, and also impairment in selecting appropriate problem solutions. The implications of the findings for our understanding of impairments in everyday life problem-solving after brain injury are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Secondary prevention of work-related disability in nonspecific low back pain: does problem-solving therapy help? A randomized clinical trial.

OBJECTIVES: Given the individual and economic burden of chronic work disability in low back pain patients, there is a need for effective preventive interventions. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether problem-solving therapy had a supplemental value when added to behavioral graded activity, regarding days of sick leave and work status. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial. PATIENTS AND SETTING: Employees who were recently on sick leave as a result of nonspecific low back pain were referred to the rehabilitation center by general practitioner, occupational physician, or rehabilitation physician. Forty-five employees had been randomly assigned to the experimental treatment condition that included behavioral graded activity and problem-solving therapy (GAPS), and 39 employees had been randomly assigned to behavioral graded activity and group education (GAGE). OUTCOME MEASURES: Days of sick leave and work status. Data were retrieved from occupational health services. RESULTS: Data analyses showed that employees in the GAPS group had significantly fewer days of sick leave in the second half-year after the intervention. Moreover, work status was more favorable for employees in this condition, in that more employees had a 100% return-to-work and fewer patients ended up receiving disability pensions one year after the intervention. Sensitivity analyses confirmed these results. CONCLUSIONS: The addition of problem-solving therapy to behavioral graded activity had supplemental value in employees with nonspecific low back pain.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Racism-related stress, Africultural coping, and religious problem-solving among African Americans.

This study explored the extent to which three types of racism-related stress (i.e., individual, institutional, and cultural) would predict the use of specific Africultural coping strategies (i.e., cognitive/emotional debriefing, spiritual-centered, collective, and ritual-centered coping) and religious problem-solving styles (i.e., self-directing, deferring, and collaborative) in a sample of 284 African American men and women. The authors found that higher institutional racism-related stress was associated with greater use of cognitive/emotional debriefing, spiritual-centered, and collective coping in African American women. Findings also indicated that higher cultural racism-related stress was predictive of lower use of self-directing religious problem-solving in African American women. Moreover, higher perceived cultural racism-related stress was related to greater use of collective coping strategies in African American men. Individual racism-related stress was not predictive of any forms of Africultural coping strategies or religious problem-solving. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1991

Spatial problem-solving in a wheel-shaped maze: quantitative and qualitative analyses of the behavioural changes following damage to the hippocampus in the rat.

The behaviour of sham-operated rats and rats with damage to the dorsal hippocampus was compared in a complex spatial problem-solving task using a 'hub-spoke-rim' wheel type maze. Compared to the classical Olton 8-arm radial maze and Morris water maze, this apparatus presents the animal with a series of possible alternative routes both direct and indirect to the goal (food). The task included 3 main stages: exploration, feeding and testing, as do the classic problem-solving tasks. During exploration, hippocampal rats were found to be more active than sham rats. Nevertheless, they displayed habituation and a relatively efficient circumnavigation, though, in both cases, different from those of sham rats. During test trials, hippocampal rats were characterized as being less accurate, making more errors than sham rats. Nevertheless, both groups increased their accuracy of first choices over trials. The qualitative analyses of test trial performance indicated that hippocampal rats were less accurate in terms of the initial error's deviation from the goal, and less efficient in terms of corrective behaviour than sham rats which used either the periphery or the spokes to attain economically the goal. Surprisingly, hippocampal rats were not limited to a taxon type orientation but learned to use the periphery, a tendency which developed over time. Seemingly, for sham rats, the problem-solving process took the form of updating information during transit. For hippocampal rats, the use of periphery reflected both an ability to discriminate its usefulness in reaching the goal via a taxis type behaviour, and some sparing of ability to generalize the closeness and the location of the goal. These results, especially the strategic correction patterns, are discussed in the light of Sutherland and Rudy's 'configurational association theory'.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Topology of large-scale engineering problem-solving networks.

The last few years have led to a series of discoveries that uncovered statistical properties that are common to a variety of diverse real-world social, information, biological, and technological networks. The goal of the present paper is to investigate the statistical properties of networks of people engaged in distributed problem solving and discuss their significance. We show that problem-solving networks have properties (sparseness, small world, scaling regimes) that are like those displayed by information, biological, and technological networks. More importantly, we demonstrate a previously unreported difference between the distribution of incoming and outgoing links of directed networks. Specifically, the incoming link distributions have sharp cutoffs that are substantially lower than those of the outgoing link distributions (sometimes the outgoing cutoffs are not even present). This asymmetry can be explained by considering the dynamical interactions that take place in distributed problem solving and may be related to differences between each actor's capacity to process information provided by others and the actor's capacity to transmit information over the network. We conjecture that the asymmetric link distribution is likely to hold for other human or nonhuman directed networks when nodes represent information processing and using elements.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2001

Using the World Wide Web to enhance the problem-solving skills of third-year veterinary students.

A Web site was created for the small animal problem-solving elective at Virginia Tech. In addition to signalment, history, physical examination findings, and results of routine laboratory tests, students were able to view images of cytologic and histologic specimens, radiographs, and endoscopic findings and hear examples of breath and cardiac sounds. Students commented that the availability of Web-based case materials allowed them increased opportunities to practice problem-solving skills.

Computer-Assisted Instruction↗
PubMed1981

Problem solving and social position among emotionally disturbed boys.

The 19 most and 19 least popular boys in a residential treatment center were administered the Means-End Problem Solving Test. Social status among peers and problem-solving ability in social situations were found to be related even among emotionally disturbed preadolescents.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Physicians know how to be good educators too: a comparison of the patient problem solving process and the instructional design process.

Education should be viewed as one of the important roles of a physician. Yet, because physicians generally are not trained to be educators, many instructional sessions, lectures and workshop presentations are ineffective because the instructional design process has been ignored. While not a substitute for professional education courses, physicians can use knowledge of the patient problem solving process to develop effective educational interventions. Both the patient problem solving process and the instructional design process consist of seven nearly identical steps which follow a basic scientific problem-solving approach. Knowledge of this similarity can improve the effectiveness of educational activities developed by physicians.

HIV Infections↗
PubMed1986

Problem-solving styles of medical students related to knowledge and personality in simulated clinical situations.

A study of problem-solving styles, employing a method previously used with general practitioners, was carried out with 40 final-year medical students. By giving their ratings on a five-point rating scale of 21-24 statements relating to each of three case histories, an answer index could be computed, expressing each student's tendency to make assertive versus non-assertive decisions. The relationship of this answer index to knowledge (grades and educational level), personality (Eysenck personality inventory [EPI]), and time used in the exercises was examined. High answer index (high degree of decisiveness in the clinical simulations) was significantly correlated with extroverted personality on the EPI (P less than 0.05) and negatively correlated with time spent on the exercises (P less than 0.01), whereas no relationship was found with grades in medical school, educational level, neuroticism on the EPI, or the students' sex and age. The findings are discussed in relation to previous studies on clinical problem-solving.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

A comparison of children with and without learning disabilities on social problem-solving skill, school behavior, and family background.

The study compared 86 children with learning disabilities (LD) with 86 matched children without learning disabilities (NLD) on three domains of variables: social problem-solving skill, teacher-rated school behavior and competence, and family background. The children with LD and the NLD group differed on variables in all three domains. More specifically, the children with LD were able to generate fewer alternatives for solving social problem situations, showed less tolerance for frustration and less adaptive assertiveness, and had more overall classroom behavior problems and less personal and social competence in a variety of areas as rated by teachers. Children having LD also showed more family background difficulties (e.g., lack of educational stimulation at home, economic difficulties). The findings suggest the need for greater attention to social and behavioral remediation for children with LD and greater involvement of their families, in addition to the cognitive and academic remediation emphasized in existing curricula for children with LD.

Child↗
PubMed1983

Task complexity, problem representation, and problem-solving performance by younger and older adults.

To test the hypothesis that increased task difficulty elicits more efficient problem-solving strategies from older adults, younger and older persons were given Twenty Questions tasks with either 64 or 10,000 possible solutions and with the possible solutions either physically present or not. Although younger adults were more efficient than older adults, there was no evidence that task difficulty affected problem solving for either age group.

Adult↗