Co-thought gestures in children's mental problem solving: Prevalence and effects on subsequent performance

This concluding chapter reviews the alternative paths for how workers are dealing with conditions of the precarious new economy. They are entering common occupations in everyday workplaces that people do not normally think of as knowledge-based or culturally relevant, and transforming them into high-end, quality jobs that fuse mental and manual labor and that people with other work opportunities see as viable career options. These workers experience manual labor as meaningful and even fun through the enactment of a set of cultural repertoires that allow for physical, bodily labor, challenging mental problem-solving, cultural understanding, and interpersonal communication. The jobs also require the confident performance of each of these work practices in concert, not independently of the others.

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Brief Inductions in Episodic Past or Future Thinking: Effects on Episodic Detail and Problem-Solving

10.31234/osf.io/2u7db ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

David John Hallford ◽

Anna Carmichael ◽

David W. Austin ◽

Sam Dax ◽

Meg Coulston ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Problem Solving ◽

Group Performance ◽

Future Thinking ◽

Control Task ◽

Subsequent Performance ◽

The Past ◽

Narrative Generation ◽

Brief Training ◽

Memory Disruption ◽

Potential Clinical Utility

Episodic specificity inductions, involving brief training in recollecting episodic details, have been shown to improve subsequent performance on tasks involving remembering the past, imagining the future and problem solving. The current study examined if specificity inductions targeting self-referential past or future episodic thinking would have dissociable effects on generating past and future episodic detail and problem solving. Sixty-three participants were randomised to either a past self-referential or future self-referential episodic induction. All participants also completed a control task. Participants randomised to the self-referential future thinking induction generated more episodic details on past and future narrative tasks compared to a control task, whereas participants randomised to a self-referential past thinking induction showed similar performance to the control task. When examining within-group performance of participants randomised to the past or future induction, we found some evidence of dissociable effects of inductions on narrative generation tasks, but not on problem solving outcomes. Our findings suggest that self-referential inductions may be useful for increasing episodic specificity, but that the temporal distance and direction of the induction matters. We discuss our results in the context of the potential clinical utility of this approach for populations vulnerable to autobiographical memory disruption.

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Explaining Imaginal Inference by Operations in a Propositional Format

Perception ◽

10.1068/p070563 ◽

1978 ◽

Vol 7 (5) ◽

pp. 563-574 ◽

Cited By ~ 38

Author(s):

Richard N Wilton

Keyword(s):

Problem Solving ◽

Efficient Method ◽

Internal Representation ◽

Perceptual System ◽

Mental Problem ◽

Sensory Field ◽

The World

Solving problems by imaginal inference often seems inefficient for an organism that is manipulating propositions. One explanation for the apparent inefficiency is that the problems are being solved not in propositional format but by operations in an analogue format. Imaginal inference might then be the most efficient method compatible with the limitations inherent in the analogue format. In the present paper an alternative rationale is given for the use of imaginal inference by explaining how the processes involved in mental problem solving are related to those in perception: it is suggested that the mechanisms used in problem solving have evolved from a perceptual system in which hypotheses about events in the sensory field are generated from an internal representation of the world. This thesis denies that perception is passive and suggests that the capacity for thought is limited by its evolutionary dependence on mechanisms specialized originally for perception. Acceptance of the thesis implies that the capabilities of a propositional format in problem solving would be limited. This limitation could account for the apparently inefficient use of that format in imaginal inference.

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Visual search light model for mental problem solving

Neurocomputing ◽

10.1016/j.neucom.2007.08.019 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 71 (13-15) ◽

pp. 2806-2822 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Andreas Wichert ◽

João Dias Pereira ◽

Paulo Carreira

Keyword(s):

Visual Search ◽

Problem Solving ◽

Mental Problem

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The Role of Social Cue Utilization and Closing-the-Loop Communication in the Performance of Ad Hoc Dyads

Human Factors The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ◽

10.1177/0018720817699512 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 59 (6) ◽

pp. 1009-1021 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Daniel J. Yee ◽

Mark W. Wiggins ◽

Ben J. Searle

Keyword(s):

Problem Solving ◽

Ad Hoc ◽

High Reliability ◽

Communication Process ◽

Cue Utilization ◽

Subsequent Performance ◽

Social Cue ◽

Closing The Loop ◽

Ad Hoc Teams ◽

Problem Solving Task

Objective: To examine whether social cue utilization impacts the performance of ad hoc dyads through its relationship with closing the loop, a communication process whereby team members respond more frequently to initiating statements made by others. Background: There lacks unequivocal experimental evidence for any single cognitive-based process that might predict the performance of ad hoc teams. Method: Using a quasi-experimental design, 80 participants were classified into 40 dyads based on their levels of social cue utilization and attempted a team problem-solving task. A serial mediation model revealed an indirect effect of social cue utilization on the performance of ad hoc dyads through closing the loop. Results: Analyses indicated that social cue utilization impacts on the performance of ad hoc dyads independently of nonverbal reasoning ability and emotional intelligence. Further, the level of social cue utilization within dyads exhibits a positive indirect impact on the performance of ad hoc dyads through closing the loop. Conclusion: Ad hoc dyads with higher levels of social cue utilization engaged in a greater frequency of closing-the-loop statements and showed better subsequent performance on a problem-solving task in comparison to dyads with lower levels of social cue utilization. Application: Potential applications include the optimization of ad hoc team composition within high reliability environments like aviation and power control as well as improving training interventions with a specific mechanism for improving the performance of ad hoc teams.

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