Laypersons’ digital problem solving: Relationships between strategy and performance in a large-scale international survey

Abstract

This study examines the role of online data as indicators of the cognitive processes involved in problem solving in a technology-rich environment. More specifically, we analyze the relationship between response time, logged action count and task outcomes in a sample of over 23,000 adults from 16 countries who participated in the Problem solving in technology-rich environments (PS-TRE) assessment as part of the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) survey. Based on a selection of tasks used in the PS-TRE assessment, the results show that while time on task may have a heterogeneous effect on a population level depending on task difficulty, action count is positively linked to task accuracy. The data also reveals a surprisingly varied and task-specific relationship between those variables.