Everyday Problem-solving Performance Research Articles

Metacognition and emotional regulation in children from 8 to 12years old.

The Metacognitive Affective Model of SRL (MASRL) considers the relationships between metacognition, motivation, and affect. Notably, it provides a theoretical framework to understand how subjective experiences (metacognition and affect) change self-regulation from a top-down to a bottom-up process and vice versa. The study examines the link between metacognition and emotional regulation in the everyday problem-solving performance of children in elementary school. Emotional regulation is studied from the angle of coping strategies. Participants were 269 children aged 8.17-11.66years old (Mean=9.8, SD=0.88). They completed a French version of the 'The Metacognitive Experiences Questionnaire' developed by Efklides and Petkaki (2005, Learning and Instruction, 15, 415) and the Kidcope (Spirito etal., 1988, Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 13, 555) to measure the coping strategies before and after solving the everyday problem taken from 'The Everyday Cognition Battery' (Allaire & Marsiske, 1999, Psychology and Aging, 14, 261). The results indicate that several metacognitive experiences are significantly linked to solving everyday problems, in particular the feeling of difficulty. The other results of our study show that no single coping strategy was linked to problem-solving performance but that the three coping strategies (i.e., emotional outburst, blaming others, and magical thinking) are linked to metacognitive experiences. The results highlight the importance of emotional regulation on cognitive performance, both before and after solving the problem. These findings have important implications for teachers, who should be aware of the effect that a feeling of difficulty may have on solving a given problem.

The Effects of Cognitive Training on Cognitive Abilities and Everyday Function: A 10-Week Randomized Controlled Trial

With a random groups design, the current study examined whether a 10-week cognitive training could improve healthy older adult's cognitive functions and everyday problem-solving and whether high ecological validity trainings would have greater positive impact upon everyday problem-solving than low ecological validity trainings. Eighty-six healthy Chinese older adult participants were assigned randomly to five groups, including one control group receiving no training and four groups receiving low ecological memory training, high ecological memory training, low ecological reasoning training, and high ecological reasoning training, respectively. Participants were measured pre- and posttraining on spatial working memory, numerical working memory, reasoning, and everyday problem-solving. Results of this study showed that cognitive training significantly improved targeted cognitive functions and everyday problem-solving performance in all the intervention groups. However, high ecological cognitive trainings failed to show superior impact upon everyday problem-solving compared with low ecological cognitive trainings.

The Role of Supportive Messages and Distracting Thoughts on Everyday Problem-Solving Performance

Background/Study Context: An increasing number of studies have examined factors related to everyday problem-solving performance across adulthood. The current study examined the role of experimentally provided supportive messages intended to provide practical or emotional support on everyday problem-solving performance. Other factors such as participant age and distracting thoughts experienced during task completion were also investigated. Methods: Everyday problem-solving performance, verbal ability performance, inductive reasoning performance, and self-reports of distracting thoughts were obtained from 54 middle-aged and 48 older adults. Participants were also exposed to practically supportive messages, emotionally supportive messages, or no supportive messages prior to completing the everyday problem-solving task. Results: Exposure to emotionally supportive messages increased task performance and lowered levels of distracting thoughts. Distracting thoughts mediated the relation between exposure to emotionally supportive messages and everyday problem-solving performance. Distracting thoughts also mediated the relation between age and everyday problem-solving performance. Conclusion: Study findings indicate that emotionally supportive messages may increase everyday problem-solving performance by decreasing the amount of distracting thoughts experienced by participants. This finding suggests that consistent administration of emotionally supportive messages could result in more optimal everyday problem-solving performance among middle-aged and older adults.

Age differences in everyday problem solving

Reductions in everyday problem solving (EPS) are often reported in older age, although it has been suggested that problem context may modify this effect. We evaluated the impact of two aspects of problem context: age appropriateness (age-neutral vs. older-age content) and problem type (interpersonal vs. practical) on EPS performance in 175 adults aged 18–87. Older adults generated fewer solutions to ill-structured EPS vignettes than younger and middle-aged adults. Middle-aged adults demonstrated an advantage on practical problems. While all age groups demonstrated a relative performance advantage for interpersonal content on older age problems, older adults showed the least relative benefit in this condition. Thus older adults do not exhibit relative performance gains on EPS problems designed to be most salient and relevant to this age group.

Neuropsychological mediators of the links among age, chronic illness, and everyday problem solving.

Reductions in everyday problem solving (EPS) are often reported in older age, although the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. The authors examined the role of 2 variables predicted to mediate (neuropsychological abilities and health status) or moderate (health status) the relationship between age and EPS performance. Toward these ends, they compared EPS and neuropsychological performance in 50 functionally independent adults with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and 64 control participants matched on age and education. Both older age and CKD were associated with worse performance on measures of EPS and memory/executive abilities. Neuropsychological abilities were positively associated with EPS performance. In both the full sample and control participants only, memory/executive functioning mediated the association between presence of chronic illness and EPS. Furthermore, memory/executive functioning partially mediated the link between age and EPS. Findings indicate that relations among age, health status, and EPS are not straightforward. Although performance on neuropsychological measures appeared to underlie EPS declines in chronic illness, increasing age remained independently associated with reduced EPS. The authors discuss implications for models of adult developmental changes in everyday cognition.

Dissociation between performance on abstract tests of executive function and problem solving in real-life-type situations in normal aging

This study examined the effects of normal aging on real-life-type problem-solving performance, using problems that had previously been found to be sensitive to lesions involving the frontal lobes. Executive skills assessed on abstract neuropsychological tests tend to decrease with normal aging. The effects of aging on tasks reliant on everyday knowledge and experience are less well understood. In the present study, groups of healthy older and younger people were compared on ability to solve real-life-type problems covering a range of everyday interpersonal situations. Performance was also examined on a range of standardized neuropsychological tests involving executive skills. Older people were similar to younger people in most aspects of everyday problem-solving performance, although the older group appeared to use a different strategy to the younger group in generating potential problem solutions. Both groups performed normally for their age on the executive tests. Comparisons based on raw scores rather than age-adjusted scores showed the younger group to perform better on the executive tests, but not on the problem-solving task. The possible contribution of knowledge and experience to problem solving on the current task is discussed. The greater life experience of the older group is likely to be the biggest contributory factor in maintaining problem-solving performance.

Age and Experiential Differences in Strategy Generation and Information Requests for Solving Everyday Problems

The role of experience in understanding age differences in strategy generation and information requests for solving everyday problems was explored in young and older adults. Participants received three hypothetical problems dealing with going to doctor’s offices and going to dinner parties and were probed extensively for their strategies and information they would like to solve the problems. Experience with these two domains was assessed by participants’ reports of their experience, script knowledge, and the presence of experience in problem definitions. No age differences were found in these experience measures. Age differences were found in the number of strategies generated and the amount of information requested to solve the problem. Two patterns of everyday problem solving were uncovered: an exhaustive style (involving inferential problem definition, elaborate strategy generation, and information requests); and an experiential style (involving experiential problem definition, less strategy generation, and fewer information requests). The results are interpreted within a model that uses individuals’ problem definitions to understand multiple aspects of everyday problem-solving performance.

Everyday problem solving in elderly women: contributions of residence, perceived control, and age.

This study examined the use of relativistic operations in everyday problem solving by elderly women. Thirty-two community residents and 32 nursing hostel residents aged between 65-90 years participated. Structured interviews canvassed the role of residence and other factors thought to contribute to the maintenance of problem-solving skills. Path analysis was used to test the developed model of the influences of age, engagement in problem-solving activities, control orientation, problem familiarity and residence on the use of relativistic operations. Partial support was found for the proposed model. Community residents used significantly more relativistic operations to solve the problems than did hostel residents. A revised model showed that in addition to residence and control orientation, the use of relativistic operations was influenced indirectly by the level of everyday problem-solving activity, through the orientation of perceived control. Increased problem-solving activity was associated with an internal control orientation, which in turn was directly related to the use of relativistic operations. The influence of age on problem solving was indirect, through problem-solving activity and residence. Our findings provide initial evidence of the extent to which variables other than age can influence everyday problem-solving performance.

Dimensionality of everyday problem solving in older adults.

This study investigated individual differences in older adults' everyday problem-solving performance using 3 instruments. Past research, typically using only single measures, has yielded a multitude of findings regarding age effects in everyday problem solving. The present sample consisted of 111 older adults (44 men, 67 women) who ranged in age from 68 to 94 years. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that, within each of the 3 instruments, subscales representing particular content domains could be reliably identified. There was, however, little relation between the different instruments, and the measures also differed in their relation with chronological age. These results support the view that everyday problem-solving competence is a multidimensional construct, of which previous investigations may only have studied particular dimensions.