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PubMed1983

Mothers' perceptions of the behavior and problem-solving skills of their developmentally delayed sons.

Mothers of 17 developmentally delayed preschool boys and 17 age-matched control boys were asked to predict how well their sons would score on the Preschool Embedded Figures Test, to estimate "the average child's" score on the test, and to evaluate their son's attentiveness and cooperation during testing. Mothers of delayed boys were found to hold an idealized view of "the average child's" problem-solving skills, were significantly less accurate than were mothers of control boys in predicting their sons' level of performance, and tended to rate their sons as less cooperative and attentive than the boys were rated by an independent observer. The impact of such distortions in maternal perceptions and expectations were discussed.

Attention↗
PubMed2003

Mothers' scaffolding of children's problem solving: establishing a foundation of academic self-regulatory competence.

The study examined relations between dimensions of mothers' scaffolding and children's academic self-regulatory behaviors in school. Mothers and their preschool children (68 dyads) were visited in their homes the summer before the child entered kindergarten. Mothers' metacognitive content and manner of instruction, emotional support, and transfer of responsibility were coded as mothers provided assistance to their children during 4 problem-solving tasks. Children's self-regulatory behaviors were assessed the following school year. Metacognitive content and manner of instruction were predictors of child behaviors related to cognitive awareness and management: metacognitive talk, monitoring, and help seeking. Emotional support and transfer of responsibility were related to children's task persistence and behavior control in school. Mothers' scaffolding appears to lay the foundation for children's subsequent academic self-regulatory competence.

Child↗
PubMed1999

Family management of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus: a practical problem-solving approach.

Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) as a chronic and potentially life-threatening condition, may have a devastating acute and long-term effect on the patient and his or her family. IDMM's management should include the following components: (a) establishment of a co-operative relationship amongst the patient, his or her family and the members of the diabetes team, (b) emphasis on the promotion of problem-solving strategies, (c) sufficient emotional and psychological support and proper education and training concerning diabetic control, provided not only to the patient but to all the family members involved in his or her care. The treatment regimen, as well as the above mentioned components of IDMM management should be tailored to the individual's specific needs, developmental stage and a level of adjustment. These facilitating conditions can have a positive and long-standing effect on the individual's capacity to cope efficiently in order to improve quality of life and obtain adjustment.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2004

Effectiveness of collaborative problem solving in affectively dysregulated children with oppositional-defiant disorder: initial findings.

Oppositional-defiant disorder (ODD) refers to a recurrent pattern of negativistic, defiant, disobedient, and hostile behavior toward authority figures. Research has shown that children with ODD and comorbid mood disorders may be at particular risk for long-term adverse outcomes, including conduct disorder. In this study, the authors examined the effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral model of intervention--called collaborative problem solving (CPS)--in comparison with parent training (PT) in 47 affectively dysregulated children with ODD. Results indicate that CPS produced significant improvements across multiple domains of functioning at posttreatment and at 4-month follow-up. These improvements were in all instances equivalent, and in many instances superior, to the improvements produced by PT. Implications of these findings for further research on and treatment selection in children with ODD are discussed.

Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorder↗
PubMed1991

Role of the medial and lateral septum in a variable goal spatial problem solving task.

Rats with lesions to the medial (MS) or lateral septal (LS) nuclei were compared to normal controls (CNT) in the acquisition of a spatial working memory task. In this task, animals were first allowed to explore the unbaited three-table apparatus before being fed on one of the two possible goal tables. Animals were then tested on their ability to return to the table where they just had been fed. Only rats with medial septal damage were clearly impaired on this problem, an impairment that dissipated over days. In contrast, the performance of LS rats was not significantly different from controls. During the second phase of the experiment, the same animals received either atropine sulphate (50 mg/kg, IP), atropine methylnitrate (50 mg/kg, IP), or an equivalent volume of saline. Atropine sulphate produced a sharp decrease in performance by all subjects. Meanwhile, atropine methylnitrate produced a mild temporary deficit only in LS rats. Overall, these results confirm that the medial septum plays a crucial role in the acquisition of problem solving. In addition, these results also suggest that the lateral septum may play a possible role in some form of spatial behavior easily disrupted by atropine methylnitrate.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Physicians in health care management: 8. The patient-physician partnership: decision making, problem solving and the desire to participate.

How reasonable are expectations that patients will participate in care decisions? The previous article in this series reviewed models of the patient-physician relationship and views on the extent to which patients want to be informed; it also described one information tool--the interactive videodisc. This article reviews literature on the extent to which patients wish to be involved in making decisions about their care. Neither "sensitive paternalism" nor "informed consent" appears to be ideal. The author suggests a distinction between two elements of choice: problem solving and decision making. This distinction helps in identifying appropriate roles for patient and provider, thereby leading to genuine shared decision making.

Decision Making↗
PubMed1992

Persistence and problem-solving skills in young male alcoholics.

This study compares the level of persistence between 31 inpatient alcoholic males and 31 abstinent or light social drinking males matched on age, education, socioeconomic status and estimated premorbid IQ. An unsolvable anagram and diagram were selected as measures of persistence. Results indicated that alcoholics persisted for significantly shorter periods of time on both measures than their matched controls. However, there were no significant group differences on two measures from the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (set shifting and set maintenance). Persistence measures from the unsolvable tasks were not significantly correlated with the set maintenance score of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. Possible explanations are considered for these findings of persistence deficits without problem-solving impairments among young alcoholics.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Relapse prevention training and problem-solving therapy in the long-term management of obesity.

This study compared 2 extended therapy programs for weight management with standard behavioral treatment (BT) without additional therapy contacts. Participants were 80 obese women who completed 20 weekly group sessions of BT and achieved a mean initial weight loss of 8.74 kg. Participants were randomly assigned to a no-further-contact condition (BT only) or to one of two extended interventions consisting of relapse prevention training (RPT) or problem-solving therapy (PST). No significant overall weight-change differences were observed between RPT and BT or between RPT and PST. However, participants who completed the PST intervention had significantly greater long-term weight reductions than BT participants, and a significantly larger percentage of PST participants achieved clinically significant losses of 10% or more in body weight than did BT participants (35% vs. 6%).

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Behavioral rigidity as a mechanism for facilitation of problem solving for aged rats.

Mature-young 5-mo.-old and aged 25-mo.-old rats (N=28 of each age group) at the same level of motivation were given forced-correct-response training trials on a 14 unit T-maze by blocking off all wrong turns. During later test trials in the maze, when the 14 culs-de-sac were open, aged rats made significantly fewer errors than mature-young rats. The effect of distribution of test trials were relatively minor, but comparison of distributed practice groups with control groups not given forced-correct-response training also indicated a strong differential age effect of training procedure on the reduction of errors during test trials. The deleterious effect of age on learning and problem solving is not immutable.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1990

[The dream of Irma's injection. Theme polyphony and problem solving].

This paper on the specimen dream of psychoanalysis presents in its first part a survey of the manifold interpretive themes that have been found in this complex dream. Apart from wish fulfillment attributed to its content by Freud himself, this dream contains themes of the dreamer's creativity and points out the developmental state of psychoanalysis existing at that time. It gives a rather accurate picture of Freud's knowledge on transference and countertransference in 1895 and informs us on a series of psychological problems of the dreamer himself: his feelings of guilt, his latent homosexual tendencies, his aggressiveness toward colleagues and women as well as the state of his marital relation. A problem solving interpretation of the Irma dream reveals the still defective state of his new healing method as illustrated by the many therapeutic errors committed in the therapy of his patient Irma. The polyphony of themes that can be seen in the initial dream of psychoanalysis warns of monothematic interpretive proposals by therapists that are likely to be ill-understood or frankly rejected by patients in favor of openended interpretations.

Countertransference↗
PubMed2003

A transactional model of oppositional behavior: underpinnings of the Collaborative Problem Solving approach.

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) refers to a recurrent pattern of developmentally inappropriate levels of negativistic, defiant, disobedient, and hostile behavior toward authority figures. ODD is one of the most common (and debilitating) comorbid disorders within Tourette's disorder (TD). Diverse psychosocial treatment approaches have been applied to children's ODD-related behaviors. In this paper, the authors articulate a transactional developmental conceptualization of oppositional behavior and describe a cognitive-behavioral model of intervention-called collaborative problem solving (CPS)-emanating from this conceptualization. The specific goals of the CPS approach are to help adults (1). understand the specific adult and child characteristics contributing to the development of a child's oppositional behavior; (2). become cognizant of three basic strategies for handling unmet expectations, including (a). imposition of adult will, (b). CPS, and (c). removing the expectation; (3). recognize the impact of each of these three approaches on parent-child interactions; and (4). become proficient, along with their children, at CPS as a means of resolving disagreements and defusing potentially conflictual situations so as to reduce oppositional episodes and improve parent-child compatibility. Summary data from an initial study documenting the effectiveness of the CPS approach (in comparison to the standard of care) are also presented.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

The effects of cognitive-behavior modification on private speech and task performance during problem solving among learning-disabled and normally achieving children.

Recent research has supported the hypothesis that poor performance among learning-disabled (LD) children is frequently the result of deficits in self-regulation of strategic behaviors, rather than structural or ability deficits. As a result, cognitive-behavior modification (CBM) techniques that emphasize development of self-regulation through self-verbalizations (private speech) have been strongly recommended. The present study examined the natural occurrence of regulatory private speech among LD and normally achieving children during problem solving, as well as the effects of CBM training on private speech and task performance. Results indicated significant deficiencies in private speech and task performance among LD children; CBM training resulted in significant improvements. These results provide further verification of deficits in self-regulation of cognitive activity among LD children and import implications for intervention.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed2001

The application of ontologies and problem-solving methods for the development of shareable guidelines.

Recently, studies have shown the benefits of using clinical guidelines in the practice of medicine. Computer-based clinical guidelines are increasingly applied in diverse areas such as policy development, utilization management, education, conduct of clinical trials, and workflow facilitation. This paper discusses some of the representations suggested in literature, discusses their weak and strong points, and demonstrates and discusses a new approach that extends earlier developed formalisms by combining primitives, ontologies and the use of problem-solving methods (PSMs). The approach is supported by a framework that facilitates the entire guideline authoring process. The paper demonstrates this framework and presents examples of guidelines, PSMs and systems that were developed by means of this approach. The overall goal of this approach is to improve the acceptance of shareable guidelines and decision support systems in daily care by facilitating the guideline acquisition and execution phases.

Decision Support Systems, Clinical↗
PubMed1998

Do monkeys choose the more skillful hand in manual problem-solving?

To investigate the relationship between manual skills and hand preference in 4 female Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata), the technique of concurrent investigation of manual skills and hand preference was introduced. 4 female Japanese monkeys were required to take food out of a pipe using the left hand and right hand alternately. The performance time and the number of deviations from alternate sequence were recorded as measure of manual skills and hand preference. In the result, the preferred hand was not always consistently the skillful one; however, only one subject tended to choose the more skillful hand in problem-solving, and another subject learned the alternate sequence of reaching. The performances of two subjects indicated discrimination of both hands in Japanese monkeys is possible.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Variability in doctors' problem-solving as measured by open-ended written patient simulations.

The uncertain validity of written simulations could be due to the difficulty in setting criteria for optimal performance. Usually criteria are set by definition of a limited number of 'correct answers' by a panel of experts reached through an open discussion. This is an artificial situation which entails mutual influence and forces the participants to respond to the necessity to reach a consensus. In the present report we describe an attempt to set 'correct answers' by the independent performance of 15 board-certified internists on four written simulations. There was a marked variability in responses due to legitimate differences in approach, to obvious errors in interpretation of the provided data and to possible differences between the expert behaviour in a real life and in a simulated setting. We believe that the criteria for acceptable performance on written clinical simulations should be determined by independent experts, rather than by a group consensus. Students who receive after the examination a compiled list of options selected by experts in response to the same questions may obtain a more realistic insight into the complexity of clinical problem-solving.

Clinical Competence↗
PubMed2005

Effects of motivational cues on perceptual asymmetry: implications for creativity and analytical problem solving.

In 4 experiments, participants were led to focus on either the prospect of positive outcomes (approach anticipation) or the prospect of negative outcomes (avoidance anticipation) and were subsequently administered behavioral measures of relative hemispheric activation. It was found that approach, relative to avoidance-related anticipatory states, produced greater relative right (diminished relative left) hemispheric activation. Experiment 3 additionally demonstrated that this pattern of activation was reversed when approach and avoidance states were not merely anticipatory but were also emotionally arousing. Finally, Experiment 4 replicated earlier findings demonstrating an influence of approach and avoidance anticipatory states on creativity and analytical problem solving (R. S. Friedman & J. Forster, 2001, 2003) and provided evidence that such effects are mediated by differences in relative hemispheric activation.

Affect↗
PubMed1976

["Counting" experiments with ravens using "matching-from-sample" methods. A contribution on problem-solving behavior in higher aniMALS].

The research goal is divided into two parts: 1. Detailed analysis of behavior in selection in a 6-choice matching-from-sample task. 2. Discussion of all observed preferences on the basis of the models of Sutherland and Mackintosh and of Miller, Galanter and Pribram. The experiments were run with 4 one-year-old ravens (Corvus corax); two of them were probably 2 males. The design is similar to Koehler's. In the task the correct responses were equally distributed between all stimuli and positions (random system). Although the task ("counting") was learned, a lot of relevant preferences for stimuli, positions, patterns etc. show that problem-solving in higher animals can be very complex. It could be shown that only a detailed analysis may clarify animal learning processes.

Animals↗