scholarly journals The Problem-Solving Box: A Novel Task for Assessing Executive Functions in 1.5- to 4-year-olds

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Hendry ◽  
Mary A. Agyapong ◽  
Hana D'Souza ◽  
Matilda A. Frick ◽  
Ana Maria Portugal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Developmentally Appropriate ◽  
Relative Strength ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Multiple Strategies ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Dimensional Measure ◽  
Problem Solvers ◽  
Problem Solving Task

Executive Functions (EFs) underpin the ability to work towards goals by co-ordinating thought and action. Difficulties with EF are implicated in many neurodevelopmental disorders. Research into the early development and remediation of EF difficulties has been hampered by a scarcity of measures suitable for very young children. We introduce a novel problem-solving task involving a box containing 3 visible rewards. Retrieval of all 3 rewards requires generation of multiple strategies, inhibition of previously-successful strategies, and persistence despite set-backs. The task requires integrative application of EFs, and mirrors the un-structured nature of real-world tasks. Exploratory analysis of data from 110 typically-developing British and Swedish children who attempted this 5-minute task indicates the task is developmentally appropriate for 1.5- to 4-year-olds. Preschoolers were more successful problem-solvers than toddlers. Age-related improvements were observed for generativity and persistence, but age was not associated with perseveration. Boys achieve higher overall scores, and were less perseverative, than girls. The low social and language demands of the task, and the ability to identify areas of relative strength and weakness even when success is not fully achieved, are markers of the task’s potential as a dimensional measure of early EF skills.

Autobiographical Memory Specificity Predicts Social Problem-Solving Ability in Old and Young Adults

2007 ◽  
Vol 60 (9) ◽  
pp. 1275-1288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Beaman ◽  
Dolores Pushkar ◽  
Sarah Etezadi ◽  
Dorothea Bye ◽  
Michael Conway
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Social Problem ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Social Problem Solving ◽  
Cued Recall ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Memory Specificity ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Problem Solving Task

Based on recent research with young, depressed adults, age-related cognitive declines and decreased autobiographical specificity were hypothesized to predict poorer social problem-solving ability in older than in younger healthy adults. Priming autobiographical memory (ABM) was hypothesized to improve social problem-solving performance for older adults. Subsequent to cognitive tests, old and young participants’ specific ABMs were tested using a cued recall task, followed by a social problem-solving task. The order of the tasks was counterbalanced to test for a priming effect. Autobiographical specificity was related to cognitive ability and predicted social problem-solving ability for both age groups. However, priming of ABM did not improve social problem-solving ability for older or younger adults. This study provides support for the hypothesis that autobiographical memory serves a directive function across the life-span.

scholarly journals Can you teach an old parrot new tricks? Cognitive development in wild kaka (Nestor meridionalis)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Loepelt ◽  
Rachael Shaw ◽  
Kevin Burns
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Behavioural Response ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Behavioural Flexibility ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Innovation Ability ◽  
Parrot Species ◽  
Problem Solvers

© 2016 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. Despite recent efforts to characterize innovative individuals within a species, we still know very little about the ontogeny of innovation ability. A number of studies have found that innovation rates are correlated with personality traits, such as neophilia and exploration. Juvenile birds are frequently more neophilic and explorative, yet few studies have found evidence of age-related differences in innovative problem-solving success. Here,we showconsistently higher innovation efficiency in juveniles of a wild, omnivorous parrot species across a variety of tasks and contexts.We tested 104 kaka (Nestor meridionalis), ranging in age from four months to 13 years. Twenty-four individuals participated in all three of our problem-solving tasks, two of which involved a familiar feeder and one an entirely novel apparatus. Juveniles were the most efficient problem-solvers in all three tasks. By contrast, the adults’ success was context dependent and limited to the novel apparatus, which did not require modification of a pre-learned behavioural response. This suggests greater behavioural flexibility in the juvenile birds, who also showed higher persistence and exploratory diversity than adults. These traits may enable young kaka to discover efficient foraging techniques, which are then maintained throughout adulthood.

scholarly journals Can you teach an old parrot new tricks? Cognitive development in wild kaka ( Nestor meridionalis )

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1832) ◽  
pp. 20153056 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Loepelt ◽  
Rachael C. Shaw ◽  
Kevin C. Burns
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Behavioural Response ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Behavioural Flexibility ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Innovation Ability ◽  
Parrot Species ◽  
Problem Solvers

Despite recent efforts to characterize innovative individuals within a species, we still know very little about the ontogeny of innovation ability. A number of studies have found that innovation rates are correlated with personality traits, such as neophilia and exploration. Juvenile birds are frequently more neophilic and explorative, yet few studies have found evidence of age-related differences in innovative problem-solving success. Here, we show consistently higher innovation efficiency in juveniles of a wild, omnivorous parrot species across a variety of tasks and contexts. We tested 104 kaka ( Nestor meridionalis ), ranging in age from four months to 13 years. Twenty-four individuals participated in all three of our problem-solving tasks, two of which involved a familiar feeder and one an entirely novel apparatus. Juveniles were the most efficient problem-solvers in all three tasks. By contrast, the adults’ success was context dependent and limited to the novel apparatus, which did not require modification of a pre-learned behavioural response. This suggests greater behavioural flexibility in the juvenile birds, who also showed higher persistence and exploratory diversity than adults. These traits may enable young kaka to discover efficient foraging techniques, which are then maintained throughout adulthood.

scholarly journals The diversity-ability trade-off in scientific problem solving

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuli Reijula ◽  
Jaakko Kuorikoski
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
High Ability ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Scientific Problem ◽  
Scientific Problem Solving ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Problem Solvers ◽  
Problem Solving Task

According to the diversity-beats-ability theorem, groups of diverse problem solvers can outperform groups of high-ability problem solvers. We argue that the model introduced by Lu Hong and Scott Page (2004; see also Grim et al. 2019) is inadequate for exploring the trade-off between diversity and ability. This is because the model employs an impoverished implementation of the problem-solving task. We present a new version of the model which captures the role of ‘ability’ in a meaningful way, and use it to explore the trade-offs between diversity and ability in scientific problem solving.

Letters to the Editor

1990 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Ian Isaacs ◽  
John Sweller ◽  
Elizabeth Owen
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Division Algorithm ◽  
Letters To The Editor ◽  
Trigonometric Identity ◽  
Tunnel Vision ◽  
Long Division ◽  
Problem Solving Strategy ◽  
Problem Solvers ◽  
Solving Strategy ◽  
Problem Solving Task

Elizabeth Owen and John Sweller (JRME 20 (3), 322–328) made the observation that novice problem solvers are so preoccupied with using means-end strategies when solving “transfonnation” types of problems that they cannot spare any thought for an overview of the total problem. This leads them to suggest that it might be counterproductive to teach this problem-solving strategy. This tunnel-vision behaviour is quite common for most beginners learning a complex task, whether it is a psychomotor skill (like learning to drive a car), an algorithmic task (such as learning the traditional long division algorithm), or a novel problem-solving task (for example, verifying a trigonometric identity). In all three learning situations the novice needs to practise the required skills in various contexts to be able to transfer them eventually to other contexts. For transfer to take place effectively, the novice has to apply these skjlls in the new context under the guidru1ce of a skilled tutor, who makes the Ieamer aware of the similarities and differences between the new context and that in which the ski ll was initially acquired and the resulting modifications required to carry out the present task effectively.

scholarly journals Can you teach an old parrot new tricks? Cognitive development in wild kaka (Nestor meridionalis)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Loepelt ◽  
Rachael Shaw ◽  
Kevin Burns
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Behavioural Response ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Behavioural Flexibility ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Innovation Ability ◽  
Parrot Species ◽  
Problem Solvers

© 2016 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. Despite recent efforts to characterize innovative individuals within a species, we still know very little about the ontogeny of innovation ability. A number of studies have found that innovation rates are correlated with personality traits, such as neophilia and exploration. Juvenile birds are frequently more neophilic and explorative, yet few studies have found evidence of age-related differences in innovative problem-solving success. Here,we showconsistently higher innovation efficiency in juveniles of a wild, omnivorous parrot species across a variety of tasks and contexts.We tested 104 kaka (Nestor meridionalis), ranging in age from four months to 13 years. Twenty-four individuals participated in all three of our problem-solving tasks, two of which involved a familiar feeder and one an entirely novel apparatus. Juveniles were the most efficient problem-solvers in all three tasks. By contrast, the adults’ success was context dependent and limited to the novel apparatus, which did not require modification of a pre-learned behavioural response. This suggests greater behavioural flexibility in the juvenile birds, who also showed higher persistence and exploratory diversity than adults. These traits may enable young kaka to discover efficient foraging techniques, which are then maintained throughout adulthood.

Scientific Problem Solving in a Virtual Laboratory: A Comparison Between Individuals and Pairs

2008 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yolanda A. Métrailler ◽  
Ester Reijnen ◽  
Cornelia Kneser ◽  
Klaus Opwis
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Process Data ◽  
Scientific Problem ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Scientific Problem Solving ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Verbal Data ◽  
Psychological Knowledge ◽  
Problem Solving Task

This study compared individuals with pairs in a scientific problem-solving task. Participants interacted with a virtual psychological laboratory called Virtue to reason about a visual search theory. To this end, they created hypotheses, designed experiments, and analyzed and interpreted the results of their experiments in order to discover which of five possible factors affected the visual search process. Before and after their interaction with Virtue, participants took a test measuring theoretical and methodological knowledge. In addition, process data reflecting participants’ experimental activities and verbal data were collected. The results showed a significant but equal increase in knowledge for both groups. We found differences between individuals and pairs in the evaluation of hypotheses in the process data, and in descriptive and explanatory statements in the verbal data. Interacting with Virtue helped all students improve their domain-specific and domain-general psychological knowledge.

Moving to Solution

2013 ◽  
Vol 60 (6) ◽  
pp. 403-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Werner ◽  
M. Raab
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Embodied Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Problem Space ◽  
Arm Swing ◽  
String Problem ◽  
Problem Solving Process ◽  
Problem Solving Task ◽  
Bodily Movements

Embodied cognition theories suggest a link between bodily movements and cognitive functions. Given such a link, it is assumed that movement influences the two main stages of problem solving: creating a problem space and creating solutions. This study explores how specific the link between bodily movements and the problem-solving process is. Seventy-two participants were tested with variations of the two-string problem (Experiment 1) and the water-jar problem (Experiment 2), allowing for two possible solutions. In Experiment 1 participants were primed with arm-swing movements (swing group) and step movements on a chair (step group). In Experiment 2 participants sat in front of three jars with glass marbles and had to sort these marbles from the outer jars to the middle one (plus group) or vice versa (minus group). Results showed more swing-like solutions in the swing group and more step-like solutions in the step group, and more addition solutions in the plus group and more subtraction solutions in the minus group. This specificity of the connection between movement and problem-solving task will allow further experiments to investigate how bodily movements influence the stages of problem solving.

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