When shoes become hammers: Goal-derived categorization training enhances problem-solving performance

Problem-solving theories have not examined how solvers navigate their knowledge to interpret problem situations or to plan strategies toward goals. In this article, the author argues that success in problem solving depends on the solver's ability to construct goal-derived categories, namely categories that are formed ad hoc to serve goals during the instantiation of problem frames. Experiment 1 (N = 140) showed improved problem-solving performance after training to construct goal-derived categories. Experiment 2 (N = 80) demonstrated that effects of training in category construction can be obtained without participants being explicitly informed regarding the relevance of training to problem solving. These studies suggest that problem solving is a dynamic expression of goal-directed cognition and provide evidence for the involvement of categorization in problem-solving processes.     

Schema Creation in Programming

The creation of plan schemes is examined in a naturalistic, longitudinal study of problem solving. Ten novice programmers each wrote eight Pascal programs to solve a series of problems. Their protocols were analyzed to determine how declarative programming knowledge was used to create simple procedural program plans, and how the simple plans were used to create complex plans. Plan creation showed a process of backward development, from the goal to the plan focus, that port of the plan that directly implements the goal. Once defined; it is expanded to create the complete plan, showing backward development of plan parts from the focus. Once the plan is complete, it may be stored as a plan schema and retrieved in subsequent problem solving. The plan will then show forward development as it is implemented in schema order, the order in which plan pieces occur in the finished program. The change from backward development during creation to forward development after retrieval was strongly evident in the statistical analysis of the protocol data. Previous studies of novice programming, which showed only forward development, ore explained as special cases of this more general model, cases in which schema knowledge was available to the problem solver.     

Why John married Mary: Understanding stories involving recurring goals

A story understander needs a great deal of knowledge about people's goals. This knowledge is needed to infer explanations for the behavior of the characters in a story. Sometimes a character's behavior cannot be explained in terms of a particular goal, but only in relation to a set of recurring goals that a character anticipates having. The concept of goal subsumption is introduced to deal with these situations. Goal subsumption is a way of planning for many goals at the same time. It occurs in three different types of story situations, each of which has its own rules for recognition and understanding.     

When goals collide: Monitoring the goals of multiple characters

Most story plots contain multiple characters who are independent, interact, and often have conflicting goals. One would expect that narrative understanding would require monitoring of the goals, concerns, and situations of multiple agents. There is considerable evidence that understanders monitor the primary protagonist's goal plans (e.g., Suh & Trabasso, 1993). However, there is relatively little research on the extent to which understanders monitor the goals of multiple agents. We investigated the impact of characters' roles and prominence on the extent to which understanders monitor the goal plans of multiple characters in a feature length film. In Experiment 1, participants made situation change judgments, and in Experiment 2, they verbally described scenes. Both types of judgments indicated that viewers monitor the goals and plans of multiple agents but do so to a greater extent for characters more prominent to the plotline.     

Leadership in the Organizational Context: A Conceptual Approach and its Applications1

The present research reviewed the literature on leadership, and noted the lack of a well-founded theoretical conception of leadership that would provide a general, cross-situational approach to leadership identification and develoment. Subsequently, it was suggested systems theory might be used to gain some understanding of leadership as it occurs in bureaucratic organizations. This led to the hypothesis that formal leadership activities will always be focused on the attainment of certain goals specified in the leadership role, and so will represent a form of problem-solving activity. The literature supporting this hypothesis was reviewed. The personal characteristics of a leader which would be likely to facilitate goal attainment and problem solving across situations were outlined as well as certain problem-specific processes. Finally, some implications of this approach to leadership identification and development were considered.     

Theory of constructions and set in problem solving

Hierarchically organized knowledge about actions has been postulated to explain planning in problem solving. Perdix, a simulation of problem solving in geometry with schematic planning knowledge, is described. Perdix’s planning knowledge enables it to augment the problem space it is given by constructing auxiliary lines. The planning system also provides a mechanism that can result in problem solving set. Results of three experiments involving set and constructions seem consistent with the kinds of knowledge structures hypothesized in the model. Protocols given during solution of 11 geometry problems showed general agreement with the explanation of constructions and set based on planning knowledge, but they also indicated processes of human problem solving not represented in the model. Finally, the explanation of constructions is discussed in relation to the general question of ill-structured problems and creativity, and the explanation of set is discussed in relation to other phenomena in the problem solving literature, including functional fixedness.     

The Preparedness and Reactions of Citizens to Warnings and Crisis Relocation for Nuclear Attack1

A total of 200 residents of Columbus, Ohio, were questioned over the telephone about their knowledge of U.S. and Soviet crisis relocation plans, their feelings about chances of surviving nuclear attack, and their behavioral intentions in the event of an evacuation. Few respondents displayed knowledge of the existence or substance of crisis relocation plans. Most gauged survival rates in the event of a nuclear attack as substantially higher with an evacuation plan than without one, but in both cases expectations were that fewer than 50% of the population would survive. While most respondents stated they would follow evacuation procedures, evidence of possible noncompliance was found.     

问题解决:涵义、过程与教学模式

提高学生解决问题能力已经成为现代教育的一个重要目标。问题解决就是由一定情境引起的,按照一定的目标,应用各种认知活动、技能等,经过一系列思维操作,使问题得以解决的过程。本文界定了问题和问题解决的概念内涵,构建了问题解决的过程模型,进而提出了问题解决的教学模式和教学策略。     

Spectrum Analysis of Cortical Activity During Verbal Planning: Physical Evidence for the Formation of Social Interaction Routines

A substantial body of scholarship focused on the processes involved in message planning has accumulated in the communication literature. One of the central tenets of memory models upon which most of the message planning models are based is that dynamic memory systems organize and reorganize knowledge structures to maximize information processing efficiency. Accordingly, efficiency can be achieved by merely retrieving and enacting plans that have achieved goals previously under similar conditions. Plan failure, however, requires alteration or even production of an original plan. Although researchers have relied exclusively on output (e.g., response latency, memory tests) to draw inferences about planning processes, it is possible to observe cognitive processes more directly by measuring cortical responses. In the present study, electrical activity was monitored in the region of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during verbal planning. Results indicated that (a) electrical activity while planning under conditions that permitted enactment of verbal plans that required no modification was significantly lower than during planning in the initial trial but, (b) electrical activity while planning under conditions in which previous efforts failed was significantly higher than during planning in the initial trial. These results provide physical evidence for the hypothetical cognitive processes proposed in the cognitivist models of routine formation.     

Planning and acting

A new theory of problem solving is presented, which embeds problem solving in the theory of action; in this theory, a problem is just a difficult action. Making this work requires a sophisticated language for-talking about plans and their execution. This language allows a broad range of types of action, and can also be used to express rules for choosing and scheduling plans. To ensure flexibility, the problem solver consists of an interpreter driven by a theorem prover which actually manipulates formulas of the language. Many examples of the use of the system six given. including an extended treatment of the world of blocks. Limitations and extensions of the system are discussed at length. It is concluded that a rule-based problem solver is necessary and feasible, but that much more work remains to be done on the underlying theory of planning and acting.     

Elements of a plan-based theory of speech acts

This paper explores the truism hat people think about what hey say. It proposes that, to satisfy heir own goals, people often plan their speech acts to affect their listeners' beliefs, goals, and emotional states. Such language use can be modelled by viewing speech acts as operators in a planning system, thus allowing both physical and speech acts to be integrated into plans. Methodological issues of how speech acts should be defined in a plan-based theory are illustrated by defining operators for requesting and informing. Plans containing those operators are presented and comparisons are drawn with Searle's formulation. The operators are show to be inadequate since they cannot be composed to form questions (requests to inform) and multiparty requests (requests to request). By refining the operator definitions and by identifying some of the side effects of requesting, compositional adequacy is achieved. The solution leads to a metatheoretical principle for modelling speech acts as planning operators.     

Case-Based Planning: A Framework for Planning from Experience

This article presents a view of planning as a task supported by a dynamic memory. This view attempts to ingegrate models of memory, learning, and planning into a single system that learns about planning by creating new plans and analyzing how they interact with the world. We call this view of planning case-based planning. A case-based planner makes use of its own past experience in developing new plans. It relies on its memory of observed effects, rather than a set of causal rules, to create and modify new plans. Memories of past successes are accessed and modified to create new plans. Memories of past failures are used to warn the planner of impending problems, and memories of past repairs are called upon to tell the planner how to deal with them. This view of planning from experience supports and is supported by a learning system that incorporates new experiences into the planner's episodic memory. This learning algorithm gains from the planner's failures as well as its successes. Successful plans are stored in memory, indexed by the goals they satisfy and the problems they avoid. Failures are also stored and indexed by the features in the world that predict them. By storing failures as well as successes, the planner is able to anticipate and avoid future plan failures. Case-based planning is aimed at improving planning behavior in three areas: failure avoidance, plan repair, and plan reuse. It also attempts gains over current learning systems, in that the learning is driven by the functional needs of a planner.     

Goal hierarchies and plan revision

This paper examined the effects of goal failure on plan revision. We argued that plans can be conceptualized as hierarchies of interrelated goals, such that broad superordinate goals are progressively subdivided into chains of more concrete subgoals. It was further expected that following negative feedback individuals would be biased to revise their goals by resetting those subgoals which were most closely linked to the point where failure occurred. In Study 1, methodological problems prevented an adequate test of the research hypotheses. Unexpectedly, individuals formulated their plans with revision in mind. In particular, planners tended to overset lower-level subgoals such that minor failures would allow them to still achieve their higher-level goals without revision. These findings were replicated in Study 2. Study 3 again examined goal revision. We utilized an experimental design to achieve more control over the task and plan content. As expected, it was found that goal revision was biased by the structure of the goal hierarchy. In particular, individuals tended to focus on the specific subgoal where failure feedback existed. In doing so, they tended to ignore the overall plan and made changes only to a small section of the goal hierarchy.The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of Carol Bormann, Keith James, Richard Hollenbeck, and Howard Weiss.     

A Plan Recognition Model for Subdialogues in Conversations

Previous plan-based models of dialogue understanding have been unable to account for many types of subdialogues present in naturally occurring conversations. One reason for this is that the models have not clearly differentiated between the varoius ways that an utterance can relate to a plan structure representing a topic. In this paper we present a plan-based theory that allows a wide variety of utterance-plan relationships. We introduce a set of discourse plans, each one corresponding to a particular way that an utterance can relate to a discourse topic, and distinguish such plans from the set of plans that are actually used to model the topics. By incorporating knowledge about discourse into a plan-based framework, we can account for a wide variety of subdialogues while maintaining the computational advantages of the plan-based approach.     

PROBLEM‐SOLVING SCHEMATA FOR TEXT TYPES: A COMPARISON OF NARRATIVE AND EXPOSITORY TEXT STRUCTURES

In this paper we argue that comprehension is a problem solving activity and that different problem solving schemata exist for different types of texts, both narrative and expository. When processing the text, the reader uses these problem solving schemata to construct meaning of the context and to satisfy personal reading goals. For instance, comprehension of a text, such as a short story, a folk tale, or even a passage from a science book, can be viewed as a problem solving activity. Bransford and Stein's (1984) IDEAL model identifies the problem solver as one who (I) identifies problems, (D) defines and represents problems, (E) explores possible strategies for solving the problem, (A) acts on those strategies, and (L) looks back and evaluates the effects of those strategies. This problem solving model aptly describes what readers as problem solvers do when comprehending a text. The reader as a problem solver identifies and defines specific reading goals. To understand the content of the passage, the reader as a problem solver uses domain‐specific knowledge about the topic, prior experience in reading that type of text to explore a multitude of strategies. While reading the text, the reader uses those strategies to construct meaning about the text. After reading a passage, the proficient reader as a problem solver evaluates what has been read and checks to see if one's reading goals have been met.     

代数应用题项目生成中的认知过程与任务特征分析

认知项目设计起源于理论驱动的测量模式,要求在详尽阐述测量建构理论的基础上,鉴别测验项目类型的任务特征,建立和标定与测量建构认知变量之间的对应关系,从而通过系统变换任务特征生成项目.本文以Greeno (1994)提出的代理者-情境交互作用(agent-situation interaction)的问题解决观为基础,对代数应用题解决的认知过程和任务蕴含性(affordance)进行了系统分析.具体而言,代数应用题被视为以文本形式呈现的,嵌套在现实情境中的某种量化结构.在代数应用题解决的转译、整合、计划、执行的认知过程中需要形成三种不同的表征,即文本基、情境模型和问题模型.其形成及解决过程受到个体问题图式知识的深刻影响.对应于不同表征方式,对代数应用题语法/语义结构、量化元素及结构、问题情境特征进行了系统分析和综合.该分析表明,为了保证代数应用题项目生成的科学性,当前研究的关键在于建立任务特征与问题解决认知变量之间的经验关系,并在问题领域整体水平上检验这种关系的可推广性.     

A proposed universal model of problem solving for design,science and cognate fields

A modestly generic, innovative, problem solving process with roots in the study of design and scientific research problem solving is presented and motivated. It is argued to be the shared core process of all problem solving. At its heart is a recognition of five foci or nodes of change vital to the process (changes in problem and solution formulation, method, constraints, and partial solution proposals) together with a bootstrap marked by the formation of higher order knowledge about problem solving in the domain in tandem with the solving of specific problems, the essential feature of all learned improvement. None of these elements is entirely original, but the way they are made explicit and developed (rather than folded into fewer, more abstract, boxes) is argued to provide fresh understanding of the organisation and power of the process to deal with complex practical problems.     

Bolstering implementation plans for the long haul: the benefits of simultaneously boosting self-concordance or self-efficacy

Recent studies suggest that implementation planning exercises may not be as helpful for long-term, self-initiated goals as for short-term, assigned goals. Two studies used the personal goal paradigm to explore the impact of implementation plans on goal progress over time. Study 1 examined whether administering implementation plans in an autonomy supportive manner would facilitate goal progress relative to a neutral, control condition and a condition in which implementation plans were administered in a controlling manner. Study 2 examined whether combining implementation plans with a self-efficacy boosting exercise would facilitate goal progress relative to a neutral, control condition and a typical implementation condition. The results showed that implementation plans alone did not result in greater goal progress than a neutral condition but that the combination of implementation plans with either autonomy support or self-efficacy boosting resulted in significantly greater goal progress.