Instruction by mothers and fathers during problem solving with their young children.

Mothers and fathers of 163 5-year-olds were observed interacting with their children in dyads on 2 separate occasions on a familiar and unfamiliar cognitive activity. Within- and between-family comparisons were conducted. Few differences in the instruction provided by mothers and fathers appeared, and those that did were on the unfamiliar task. On this task, instruction by mothers, within and across families, was more responsive to children's changing skill than was instruction by fathers. Directive and disapproving comments by parents were related to poorer posttest performance by the child. High level of instruction by both parents was related to better posttest performance than was low level of instruction by parents. Contributions of parents to their children's cognitive development are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Compared with what? The effects of different comparisons on conceptual knowledge and procedural flexibility for equation solving.

Researchers in both cognitive science and mathematics education emphasize the importance of comparison for learning and transfer. However, surprisingly little is known about the advantages and disadvantages of what types of things are being compared. In this experimental study, 162 seventh- and eighth-grade students learned to solve equations (a) by comparing equivalent problems solved with the same solution method, (b) by comparing different problem types solved with the same solution method, or (c) by comparing different solution methods to the same problem. Students’ conceptual knowledge and procedural flexibility were best supported by comparing solution methods and to a lesser extent by comparing problem types. The benefits of comparison are augmented when examples differ on relevant features, and contrasting methods may be particularly useful in mathematics learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Instruction begins in the home: Relations between parental instruction and children's self-regulation in the classroom.

The study examined the effectiveness of 3 aspects of parental instruction for predicting children's self-regulation in school. Fathers, mothers, and their children (52 families) were visited in their homes the summer before the child entered 3rd grade. Metacognitive content (task and strategy information), manner of instruction (small steps at an appropriate pace), and emotional support were coded from parents' instructions to their children for a problem-solving task. Children's self-regulatory behaviors in the classroom were assessed the following school year. Two patterns of relations were observed. Manner of instruction predicted children's attention to instructions and help-seeking in the classroom. Metacognitive content of instructions did not predict these aspects of self-regulation. In contrast, metacognitive content of instructions presented in an understandable manner with emotional support predicted children's monitoring and metacognitive talk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cultural differences in complex addition: Efficient Chinese versus adaptive Belgians and Canadians.

In the present study, the authors tested the effects of working-memory load on math problem solving in 3 different cultures: Flemish-speaking Belgians, English-speaking Canadians, and Chinese-speaking Chinese currently living in Canada. Participants solved complex addition problems (e.g., 58 + 76) in no-load and working-memory load conditions, in which either the central executive or the phonological loop was loaded. The authors used the choice/no-choice method to obtain unbiased measures of strategy selection and strategy efficiency. The Chinese participants were faster than the Belgians, who were faster and more accurate than the Canadians. The Chinese also required fewer working-memory resources than did the Belgians and Canadians. However, the Chinese chose less adaptively from the available strategies than did the Belgians and Canadians. These cultural differences in math problem solving are likely the result of different instructional approaches during elementary school (practice and training in Asian countries vs. exploration and flexibility in non-Asian countries), differences in the number language, and informal cultural norms and standards. The relevance of being adaptive is discussed as well as the implications of the results in regards to the strategy choice and discovery simulation model of strategy selection (J. Shrager & R. S. Siegler, 1998). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training and transfer in combinatorial problem solving: The development of formal reasoning during early adolescence.

Studied training and transfer effects in combinatorial problem solving to explore the emergence of combinatorial competence as an aspect of the development of formal reasoning and to examine the effectiveness of a training procedure based on principles of "programmed discovery." 80 12-14 yr olds participated in a pretest, 2 training or placebo sessions, an immediate posttest, and a delayed posttest 2 mo later. Significant increases in combinatorial skill with age were shown, and the expression of this skill was significantly facilitated if problems involved "concrete" material of low complexity. With the oldest Ss, training produced significant improvements in performance on combinatorial tasks that were markedly different from the training items in both content and modality. Significant improvements over time and with practice were also evident with the older Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Goals and everyday problem solving: Manipulating goal preferences in young and older adults.

In the present study, we examined the link between goal and problem-solving strategy preferences in 130 young and older adults using hypothetical family problem vignettes. At baseline, young adults preferred autonomy goals, whereas older adults preferred generative goals. Imagining an expanded future time perspective led older adults to show preferences for autonomy goals similar to those observed in young adults but did not eliminate age differences in generative goals. Autonomy goals were associated with more self-focused instrumental problem solving, whereas generative goals were related to more other-focused instrumental problem solving in the no-instruction and instruction conditions. Older adults were better at matching their strategies to their goals than young adults were. This suggests that older adults may become better at selecting their strategies in accordance with their goals. Our findings speak to a contextual approach to everyday problem solving by showing that goals are associated with the selection of problem-solving strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive development and reading: The relation of reading-specific multiple classification skill to reading comprehension in elementary school children.

Cognitive flexibility, the ability to consider multiple aspects of stimuli simultaneously, develops over the elementary school years and can be measured with a multiple classification task. Although prior research indicates a significant relation between domain-general multiple classification skill (e.g., classifying objects by shape and color simultaneously) and reading, a precise relation between these abilities has not been found. A reading-specific multiple classification task was designed that required children to classify printed words along phonological and semantic dimensions simultaneously. Reading-specific multiple classification skill made a unique contribution to children's reading comprehension over the contributions made by children's age, domain-general multiple classification skill, decoding skill, and verbal ability. Additionally, training in reading-specific multiple classification facilitated children's reading comprehension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Too upset to think: The interplay of borderline personality features, negative emotions, and social problem solving in the laboratory.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with poor social problem solving and problems with emotion regulation. In this study, the social problem-solving performance of undergraduates with high (n = 26), mid (n = 32), or low (n = 29) levels of BPD features was assessed with the Social Problem-Solving Inventory—Revised and using the means-ends problem-solving procedure before and after a social rejection stressor. The high-BP group, but not the low-BP group, showed a significant reduction in relevant solutions to social problems and more inappropriate solutions following the negative emotion induction. Increases in self-reported negative emotions during the emotion induction mediated the relationship between BP features and reductions in social problem-solving performance. In addition, the high-BP group demonstrated trait deficits in social problem solving on the Social Problem-Solving Inventory—Revised. These findings suggest that future research must examine social problem solving under differing emotional conditions, and that clinical interventions to improve social problem solving among persons with BP features should focus on responses to emotional contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maternal scaffolding of children's problem solving and children's adjustment in kindergarten: Hmong families in the United States.

The study examined relations between maternal scaffolding of children's problem solving and children's adjustment in kindergarten in Hmong families living in the United States. Mothers and their children (63 dyads) were visited the summer before kindergarten. Mothers' years in the United States, age, education, reasoning skills, and parenting beliefs were assessed. Maternal scaffolding (cognitive support, directiveness of instruction, praise, and criticism) was coded while mothers helped their children with school-like tasks. Children's reasoning skills, conscientiousness, autonomous behavior, and task persistence in kindergarten were reported by teachers at the end of kindergarten (54 children). Maternal cognitive support of children's problem solving predicted children's reasoning skills in kindergarten even after controlling for maternal education and reasoning skills. Maternal directive instruction positively predicted children's conscientious behavior and negatively predicted children's autonomous behaviors after controlling for maternal education and parenting beliefs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cooperative problem solving by tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella): Spontaneous division of labor, communication, and reciprocal altruism.

Using an experimentally induced cooperation task, the authors investigated whether tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) share the following 3 characteristics of cooperation with humans: division of labor, communication, and reciprocal altruism. In Experiment 1, the authors trained individual monkeys to perform the necessary sequence of actions for rewards and tested them in pairs to assess whether they could solve the task by spontaneously dividing the sequence of actions. All pairs solved this task. In Experiment 2, monkeys worked in the cooperation task and a task requiring no partner help. They looked at the partner significantly longer in the former task than in the latter, but communicative intent could not be determined. In Experiment 3, only 1 of 2 participants obtained a reward on each trial. Monkeys maintained cooperation when their roles were reversed on alternate trials. Their cooperative performances demonstrated division of labor; results suggest task-related communication and reciprocal altruism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Having the Memory of an Elephant: Long-Term Retrieval and the Use of Analogues in Problem Solving.

The authors report 4 experiments exploring long-term analogical transfer from problem solutions in folk tales participants heard during childhood, many years before encountering the target problems. Substantial culture-specific analogical transfer was found when American and Chinese participants' performance was compared on isomorphs of problems solved in European versus Chinese folk tales. There was evidence of transfer even among participants who did not report being reminded of the source tale while solving the target problem. Comparisons of different versions of a target problem indicated that similarity of solution tool affected accessing, mapping, and executing components of problem solving, whereas similarity of goal object had only a moderate effect on accessing. High school students also evidenced greater transfer than did middle school students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)