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PubMed2005

Effects of openness, problem solving, and blaming on learning: an experiment in China.

Researchers have considered interdependence and interaction among individuals and groups as critical for promoting learning in organizations. In an experiment with 80 participants in China, the present authors found that (a) open discussion compared with avoiding discussion and (b) problem solving compared with blaming stimulated the exploration, integration, and adoption of alternative ideas in addition to strengthening interpersonal relationships. The results also indicated the possibility that openness and problem solving have these effects by developing a perceived cooperative interdependence that encourages people to believe that incorporating alternative ideas can help them succeed. Avoidance and blaming, on the other hand, seemed to result in a competitive struggle to see who could impose their ideas on the other, leaving people committed to their original thinking.

Asian People↗

PubMed2003

Design and performance frameworks for constructing problem-solving simulations.

Rapid advancements in hardware, software, and connectivity are helping to shorten the times needed to develop computer simulations for science education. These advancements, however, have not been accompanied by corresponding theories of how best to design and use these technologies for teaching, learning, and testing. Such design frameworks ideally would be guided less by the strengths/limitations of the presentation media and more by cognitive analyses detailing the goals of the tasks, the needs and abilities of students, and the resulting decision outcomes needed by different audiences. This article describes a problem-solving environment and associated theoretical framework for investigating how students select and use strategies as they solve complex science problems. A framework is first described for designing on-line problem spaces that highlights issues of content, scale, cognitive complexity, and constraints. While this framework was originally designed for medical education, it has proven robust and has been successfully applied to learning environments from elementary school through medical school. Next, a similar framework is detailed for collecting student performance and progress data that can provide evidence of students' strategic thinking and that could potentially be used to accelerate student progress. Finally, experimental validation data are presented that link strategy selection and use with other metrics of scientific reasoning and student achievement.

Computer Simulation↗

PubMed1986

Teaching problem solving in pathology. General Professional Education of Physicians (GPEP) anticipated.

The Association of American Medical Colleges' 1984 publication, "Physicians for the 21st Century"--commonly known as the GPEP (General Professional Education of Physicians) report--advocates curricula that foster active, independent learning and acquisition of problem-solving skills. A curriculum along these principles was previously designed by the pathology department of the University of California School of Medicine, Davis. Our experience at Davis has shown that the curricular goals of the GPEP report can be attained by reorienting lectures, laboratories, and examinations toward problem solving. The result has been a significant improvement in student performance, as evaluated by subjective and objective criteria.

California↗

PubMed1999

Conceptual priming in a generative problem-solving task.

Three experiments explored how participants solved a very open-ended generative problem-solving task. Previous research has shown that when participants are shown examples, novel creations will tend to conform to features shared across those examples (Smith, Ward, & Schumacher, 1993). We made the shared features of the examples conceptually related to one another. We found that when the features were related to the concept of hostility, participants' creations contained hostile features that were not part of any of the examples. These results suggest that participants will design novel entities to be consistent with emergent properties of examples shown to them. We also found that a mild hostility prime from unscrambling sentences had a similar conceptual effect. Together, the two effects suggest that conceptual priming of generative cognitive tasks will influence the cognitive aspects of the creative process.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed1979

Problem-solving skills, locus of control, and the contraceptive effectiveness of young women.

It was proposed that the lack of insight into the risk-taking behavior of many sexually active women who do not want to get pregnant may reflect the lack of an adequate framework from which to investigate the problem. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between contraceptive effectiveness and several cognitive factors. The sample consisted of 155 single women, 15.3-25.7 years of age, from a Planned Parenthood clinic and an abortion clinic. Contraceptive effectiveness, operationally defined as the number of unplanned pregnancies in a woman's history, was significantly and negatively related to means-ends problem-solving ability and a belief in internal control and significantly and positively related to a belief in chance control. It was suggested that these results support the utility of a cognitive, problem-solving approach to the study of contraceptive behavior.

Abortion, Induced↗

PubMed2004

Effectiveness of vocational problem-solving skills on motivation and job-seeking action steps.

Most research on employment interventions focuses on job acquisition as the sole outcome measure, despite the fact that there are many intermediate steps to obtaining work. This article examines the impact of a vocational problem solving skills (VPSS) intervention to increase motivation and action step activities that lead to employment. Over a 1-year period between 1995 and 1996, a sample of 109 methadone maintained treatment clients were randomly assigned to either a 10-session vocational problem solving intervention (N= 62) or a time and attention control condition (N=47). The Addiction Severity Index (ASI) and a Vocational Motivational Assessment Checklist (VMAC) were administered upon enrollment in the study and at 6 months postbaseline. The VMAC was completed on a biweekly basis over the 12-week intervention period. The VMAC measures both the behavioral actions to obtain employment (e.g., reading want ads, completing job applications) and client perceived motivation to obtain a job. There were no differences by condition in the level of motivation to secure employment and the number of job seeking activities during the intervention period. However, motivation to work and number of action steps did predict obtaining employment for the sample as a whole at the 6-month follow-up. Although the intervention did not increase motivation and job seeking activities, information regarding reasonable outcomes for this population of chronically unemployed persons was identified. Also, practical and methodological implications are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Functional cortical interaction patterns in visual perception and visuospatial problem solving.

To explore the integration of functional neuronal interactions in human higher cortical functions, we applied multivariate mathematical techniques to regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) increases induced by mental activity. rCBF was measured using the intravenous xenon-133 clearance technique with 32 bihemispheric detectors in 84 normal volunteers at rest and during both a visuoperceptual accuracy task and a visuospatial problem solving task. Both paradigms activated rCBF in bilateral premotor, motor and postcentral regions. Bilateral prefrontal activation occurred during problem solving but not during the perceptual accuracy task. Partial correlations coefficients and factor analysis identified significant interactions between numerous cortex regions in both tasks. There were highly ordered and integrated patterns of functional interaction patterns between cortex areas subserving elementary subfunctions of complex behavior. Cortical interaction analysis by such techniques is a useful tool to describe the functional anatomy of large-scale neurocognitive networks in the intact human brain. Imaging functional interactions between active cortex areas are complementary to other experimental neurophysiologic methods to explore brain-behavior relationships in health and disease.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1980

Hazard visibility and occupational health problem solving the case of the uranium industry.

Recent evidence from European research challenges the adequacy of current U.S. exposure guidelines for underground mine radiation. This study traces the history of government regulatory agency and industry response to the hazard of excessive mine radiation in the uranium industry in Colorado some 30 years ago. Problem-solving activity by government agencies and companies is shown to coincide with how visible the health hazard to uranium miners becomes. Hazard visibility and key problem-solving variables are defined and measured. The article also discusses a number of social factors that affect societal response to evidence of an occupational health hazard. Those factor include (1) the elusiveness of the disease and its symptoms, (2) the social class of the victim, (3) the level of medical and scientific interest in its cause and cure, and (4) the economic costs of the disease.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗

PubMed2001

The use of clinical and management case studies to increase problem solving skills.

Clinical laboratory science (CLS) students are presented courses in each of the laboratory disciplines and often are not given the opportunity to correlate data from all areas of the laboratory as it relates to a patient. Management courses are often taught in a classroom setting without an opportunity for real-life problem solving. To address these two deficiencies in our curriculum, a self-directed learning course was developed to give students an opportunity to apply skills and knowledge acquired in the classroom to clinical laboratory science practice and to demonstrate problem solving, communication and presentation skills. After entry into the clinical practicum courses, students are required to gather data and present a clinical case study involving several laboratory disciplines or to identify a laboratory management problem and present solutions. Students are assigned a clinical faculty advisor to assist with identification of the case and data collection and an academic faculty advisor to assist with presentation preparation. Clinical faculty advisors are invited to attend the student presentations and earn continuing education credit. Evaluations of the course by students, clinical and academic faculty are favorable. The course has been offered for three years and will be continued with ongoing changes to improve it each year.

Clinical Laboratory Techniques↗

PubMed1999

Structured teaching methods enhance skill acquisition but not problem-solving abilities: an evaluation of the 'silent run through'.

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to evaluate whether a structured teaching technique (the silent run through) was of benefit in the learning of a skill sequence, and whether it would affect students' ability to improve their problem-solving skills or ability to make judgements. DESIGN: Students from one hospital were taught two different complex skills using a highly structured teaching method involving the breakdown of complex tasks into smaller components and the utilization of an internal, silent 'commentary'. Their subsequent ability to reproduce these skills was compared with a second group of students taught at another hospital. All students were assessed during a common end of attachment Objective Structured Clinical Examination on the two skills, by raters blind to the teaching techniques the students had received. SETTING: School of Medicine, University of Leeds, UK. SUBJECTS: Medical students. RESULTS: Students who received the structured teaching were significantly better at reproducing a complex, sequential clinical skill (examination of a squint). There was no demonstrable improvement in problem-solving skills as assessed on an X-ray interpretation station. Students expressed high levels of satisfaction with learning skills in such a structured way and reported increased confidence in their examination skills. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides some evidence to support the hypothesis that different teaching techniques may be more effective for improving different elements of skills learning. In particular, a highly structured technique involving breaking complex tasks down into smaller components and utilizing an internal 'commentary' may be an effective way of teaching the sequential motor components of complex clinical skills.

Clinical Competence↗

PubMed1989

Problem-solving instruction during the clinical clerkship: description and preliminary evaluation of a programme.

A clerkship programme in general surgery is described whereby students acquire factual knowledge about disease entities through independent learning rather than through formal teaching. The objectives of the programme are to promote problem-solving skills. It consists of clinical work (patient work-up, clinical rounds, participation in the activities in the operating room, out-patient clinic and emergency room) and of small-group tutorial sessions. The described programme has met with approval and satisfaction from both students and teachers. There were no significant differences in the average grades on the written and oral final examinations between the graduates of this clerkship programme and those of a traditional one. Independent learning and problem-solving instruction, which have been adopted by some medical schools in the preclinical phase of the curriculum, can be effectively implemented during the clinical phase as well.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed1996

Evaluating health care team performance: assessment of joint problem-solving action.

A method for evaluating health care team performance from a problem-solving perspective is described. The effectiveness of team collaboration is measured by the extent to which teams resolve or improve problems in interdisciplinary processes. A summary indicator of team performance is illustrated, and application of the approach to other health and human service problems is discussed.

Employee Performance Appraisal↗

PubMed1979

Heart-rate correlates of childhood activities: play, exploration, problem-solving and day-dreaming.

Heart-rate was monitored while children were engaged in different activities. The first study examined the hypothesis that the behavioural distinction between exploration and play would be supported by the psychophysiological measure. Two-year-olds showed suppression of heart rate variability (HRV) during exploration, and even more during solution of a puzzle, suggesting that the task demands these two activities were greater than those during play. The second study demonstrated a relationship between HRV during daydreaming and during problem solving in 9-year-old children which was similar to that obtained between play and problem solving in younger children. The correlative use of HRV thus strengthened functional interpretations of behaviour.

Child↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Planning, problem-solving and organizational abilities in children following traumatic brain injury: intervention techniques.

Due to the mechanisms involved in traumatic brain injury (TBI), the frontal lobes are often impacted. As the frontal regions of the brain are believed to subsume executive functioning, then it follows that post-TBI deficits may be seen in this domain. Executive functioning broadly refers to a set of inter-related skills necessary to maintain an appropriate problem-solving set for the attainment of a future goal and may include areas such as attentional control, planning, problem-solving, cognitive flexibility, abstraction and information processing. The literature available on interventions for executive difficulties following TBI is minimal, with that focused on the paediatric population even more limited. From the few evaluation studies available, results tend to suggest that specific types of intervention lead to positive outcomes. However, as the interventions are few and often based on case studies, there is much need for more evaluation studies to be conducted.

Brain Injuries↗

PubMed1978

Clinical problem solving: a behavioral analysis.

To extend the understanding of the clinical problem-solving process, we have analyzed the tape-recorded behavior of experienced clinicians engaged in "taking the history of the present illness" from a simultated patient. We showed that specific diagnostic hypotheses were generated often with little more information than presenting complaints, that testing of diagnostic hypotheses consisted of various case-building strategies for corroborating and discrediting hypotheses, and that the process of information gathering included techniques to evaluate the validity of data and assess the need for immediate action. Overall strategies were more difficult to discern but included a focused approach, a systemic exploration method, and a chronologic technique. The data have potential value in medical education and in developing computer programs to simulate the diagnostic process.

Diagnosis↗

PubMed1996

Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Mathematical Problem-Solving of Gifted Students

Path analysis was used to test the predictive and mediational role that self-efficacy beliefs play in the mathematical problem-solving of middle school gifted students (n = 66) mainstreamed with regular education students (n = 232) in algebra classes. Self-efficacy of gifted students made an independent contribution to the prediction of problem-solving in a model that controlled for the effects of math anxiety, cognitive ability, mathematics GPA, self-efficacy for self-regulated learning, and sex. Gifted girls surpassed gifted boys in performance but did not differ in self-efficacy. Gifted students reported higher math self-efficacy and self-efficacy for self-regulated learning as well as lower math anxiety than did regular education students. Although most students were overconfident about their capabilities, gifted students had more accurate self-perceptions and gifted girls were biased toward underconfidence. Results support the hypothesized role of self-efficacy in A. Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1987

Mothers' problem-solving skill and use of help with infant-related issues: the role of importance and need for action.

Examination was made of the relationship of mothers' appraisal of the importance of and need for action around infant-related issues to maternal experience (parity and time since birth), use of help, and perceived problem-solving competence. Sixty-two mothers (38 primiparae and 24 multiparae) kept for 90 days post-birth a daily log of issues, rated for importance and for need for action, and of help used. Mothers also reported perceived problem-solving competence on an 11-item scale. Findings indicated tentativeness in ratings of importance and action. Ratings of importance were associated with action ratings, except for temperament issues. Action ratings for baby care and illness issues decreased significantly with time. Otherwise, maternal experience had no effect on ratings. More of the variance in perceived competence than use of help was explained by action and importance ratings.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1990

Parent-adolescent problem-solving interactions and drug use.

This study reports on the social problem-solving interactions of young adolescents in single-parent and intact families on substance-specific and nonsubstance-related issues. Although research has shown the impact of families on adolescent substance use, all of the previous results have been based on questionnaire or interview data. A sample of 128 families was selected from a larger sample of 763 within a longitudinal study of adolescent substance use. Parent(s) and one adolescent, aged 11-15, participated in interactions which were videotaped for later coding. In three standard scenarios, the families discussed fictional assignments from a health class teacher about the use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana. In addition, they discussed an issue salient to them that was the source of recent conflict. Results showed that aversive affective behavior was more likely to be displayed by substance-using adolescents, whether or not the issue was drug-related. Mothers' and fathers' alcohol use was also shown to contribute to alcohol and cigarette use among their children, while fathers' smoking contributed to marijuana and hard drug use. These data suggest that such families may not be skilled at resolving issues and coping with life's difficulties whether or not they are drug-related.

Adolescent↗