The refinement and validation of the critical decision making and problem solving scale moral dilema (CDP-MD)

This thesis extended previous research on critical decision making and problem solving by refining and validating a measure designed to assess the use of critical thinking and critical discussion in sociomoral dilemmas. The purpose of this thesis was twofold: 1) to refine the administration of the Critical Thinking Subscale of the CDP to elicit more adequate responses and for purposes of refining the coding and scoring procedures for the total measure, and 2) to collect preliminary data on the initial reliabilities of the measure. Subjects consisted of 40 undergraduate students at Florida International University. Results indicate that the use of longer probes on the Critical Thinking Subscale was more effective in eliciting adequate responses necessary for coding and evaluating the subjects performance. Analyses on the psychometric properties of the measure consisted of test-retest reliability and inter-rater reliability.

The role of exploration and critical decision making and problem solving in making life choices

Although the literature on the types of abilities and processes that contribute to identity formation has been growing, the research has been mainly descriptive/correlational. This dissertation conducted an experimental investigation of the role of two theoretically distinct processes (exploration and critical problem solving) in identity formation, one of the first to be reported. The experimental training design (pre-post, training versus control) used in this study was intended to promote identity development by fostering an increase in the use of exploration and critical problem solving with respect to making life choices. Participants included 53 psychology students from a large urban university randomly assigned to each group. The most theoretically significant finding was that the intervention was successful in inducing change in the ability to use critical skills in resolving life decisions, as well as effecting a positive change in identity status.

Critical problem solving scale : creating and choosing alternative solutions

This thesis extends previous research on critical decision making and problem-solving by refining and validating a self-report measure designed to assess the use of critical decision making and problem solving in making life choices. The analysis was conducted by performing two studies, and therefore collecting two sets of data on the psychometric properties of the measure. Psychometric analyses included: item analysis, internal consistency reliability, interrater reliability, and an exploratory factor analysis. This study also included regression analysis with the Wonderlic, an established measure of general intelligence, to provide preliminary evidence for the construct validity of the measure.

Patterns of cooperation, conflict, and domination in children's collaborative problem-solving

This study examined the influence of age, expertise, and task difficulty on children's patterns of collaboration. Six- and eight-year-old children were individually pretested for ability to copy a Lego model and then paired with each other and asked to copy two more models. The design was a 3 (dyad skill level: novice, expert, or mixed) X 2 (age: six or eight) X 2 (task difficulty: moderate or complex) factorial. Results indicated that cooperation increased with age and expertise and decreased with task difficulty. However, expertise had a greater influence on younger than older children's interaction styles. It is argued that with age, social skills may become as important as expertise in determining styles of collaboration. The issue is raised of whether cooperation, domination, and independence represent developmental sequences (i.e., independence precedes cooperation) or whether they represent personal styles of interaction. Finally, it is suggested that an important goal for future research is to assess the relationship between patterns of collaboration and learning.

Parallel Problem Solving from Nature – PPSN XIV:14th International Conference, Edinburgh, UK, September 17-21, 2016, Proceedings

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature, PPSN 2016, held in Edinburgh, UK, in September 2016. The total of 93 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 224 submissions. The meeting began with four workshops which offered an ideal opportunity to explore specific topics in intelligent transportation Workshop, landscape-aware heuristic search, natural computing in scheduling and timetabling, and advances in multi-modal optimization. PPSN XIV also included sixteen free tutorials to give us all the opportunity to learn about new aspects: gray box optimization in theory; theory of evolutionary computation; graph-based and cartesian genetic programming; theory of parallel evolutionary algorithms; promoting diversity in evolutionary optimization: why and how; evolutionary multi-objective optimization; intelligent systems for smart cities; advances on multi-modal optimization; evolutionary computation in cryptography; evolutionary robotics - a practical guide to experiment with real hardware; evolutionary algorithms and hyper-heuristics; a bridge between optimization over manifolds and evolutionary computation; implementing evolutionary algorithms in the cloud; the attainment function approach to performance evaluation in EMO; runtime analysis of evolutionary algorithms: basic introduction; meta-model assisted (evolutionary) optimization. The papers are organized in topical sections on adaption, self-adaption and parameter tuning; differential evolution and swarm intelligence; dynamic, uncertain and constrained environments; genetic programming; multi-objective, many-objective and multi-level optimization; parallel algorithms and hardware issues; real-word applications and modeling; theory; diversity and landscape analysis.

Group problem-solving skills training for self-harm: randomised controlled trial

Background: Rates of self-harm are high and have recently increased. This trend and the repetitive nature of self-harm pose a significant challenge to mental health services. Aims: To determine the efficacy of a structured group problem-solving skills training (PST) programme as an intervention approach for self-harm in addition to treatment as usual (TAU) as offered by mental health services. Method: A total of 433 participants (aged 18-64 years) were randomly assigned to TAU plus PST or TAU alone. Assessments were carried out at baseline and at 6-week and 6-month follow-up and repeated hospital-treated self-harm was ascertained at 12-month follow-up. Results: The treatment groups did not differ in rates of repeated self-harm at 6-week, 6-month and 12-month follow-up. Both treatment groups showed significant improvements in psychological and social functioning at follow-up. Only one measure (needing and receiving practical help from those closest to them) showed a positive treatment effect at 6-week (P = 0.004) and 6-month (P = 0.01) follow-up. Repetition was not associated with waiting time in the PST group. Conclusions: This brief intervention for self-harm is no more effective than treatment as usual. Further work is required to establish whether a modified, more intensive programme delivered sooner after the index episode would be effective.

Convergence and translation: attitudes to inter-professional learning and teaching of creative problem-solving among medical and engineering students and staff

Background: Healthcare worldwide needs translation of basic ideas from engineering into the clinic. Consequently, there is increasing demand for graduates equipped with the knowledge and skills to apply interdisciplinary medicine/engineering approaches to the development of novel solutions for healthcare. The literature provides little guidance regarding barriers to, and facilitators of, effective interdisciplinary learning for engineering and medical students in a team-based project context. Methods: A quantitative survey was distributed to engineering and medical students and staff in two universities, one in Ireland and one in Belgium, to chart knowledge and practice in interdisciplinary learning and teaching, and of the teaching of innovation. Results: We report important differences for staff and students between the disciplines regarding attitudes towards, and perceptions of, the relevance of interdisciplinary learning opportunities, and the role of creativity and innovation. There was agreement across groups concerning preferred learning, instructional styles, and module content. Medical students showed greater resistance to the use of structured creativity tools and interdisciplinary teams. Conclusions: The results of this international survey will help to define the optimal learning conditions under which undergraduate engineering and medicine students can learn to consider the diverse factors which determine the success or failure of a healthcare engineering solution.

Completion strategy or emphasis manipulation? Task support for teaching information problem solving

While most students seem to solve information problems effortlessly, research shows that the cognitive skills for effective information problem solving are often underdeveloped. Students manage to find information and formulate solutions, but the quality of their process and product is questionable. It is therefore important to develop instruction for fostering these skills. In this research, a 2-h online intervention was presented to first-year university students with the goal to improve their information problem solving skills while investigating effects of different types of built-in task support. A training design containing completion tasks was compared to a design using emphasis manipulation. A third variant of the training combined both approaches. In two experiments, these conditions were compared to a control condition receiving conventional tasks without built-in task support. Results of both experiments show that students' information problem solving skills are underdeveloped, which underlines the necessity for formal training. While the intervention improved students’ skills, no differences were found between conditions. The authors hypothesize that the effective presentation of supportive information in the form of a modeling example at the start of the training caused a strong learning effect, which masked effects of task support. Limitations and directions for future research are presented.

Testing After Worked Example Study Does Not Enhance Delayed Problem-Solving Performance Compared to Restudy

Four experiments investigated whether the testing effect also applies to the acquisition of problem-solving skills from worked examples. Experiment 1 (n=120) showed no beneficial effects of testing consisting of isomorphic problem solving or example recall on final test performance, which consisted of isomorphic problem solving, compared to continued study of isomorphic examples. Experiment 2 (n=124) showed no beneficial effects of testing consisting of identical problem solving compared to restudying an identical example. Interestingly, participants who took both an immediate and a delayed final test outperformed those taking only a delayed test. This finding suggested that testing might become beneficial for retention but only after a certain level of schema acquisition has taken place through restudying several examples. However, experiment 2 had no control condition restudying examples instead of taking the immediate test. Experiment 3 (n=129) included such a restudy condition, and there was no evidence that testing after studying four examples was more effective for final delayed test performance than restudying, regardless of whether restudied/tested problems were isomorphic or identical. Experiment 4 (n=75) used a similar design as experiment 3 (i.e., testing/restudy after four examples), but with examples on a different topic and with a different participant population. Again, no evidence of a testing effect was found. Thus, across four experiments, with different types of initial tests, different problem-solving domains, and different participant populations, we found no evidence that testing enhanced delayed test performance compared to restudy. These findings suggest that the testing effect might not apply to acquiring problem-solving skills from worked examples

Evaluation of creative problem solving abilities in undergraduate structural engineers through interdisciplinary problem based learning

For a structural engineer, effective communication and interaction with architects cannot be underestimated as a key skill to success throughout their professional career. Structural engineers and architects have to share a common language and understanding of each other in order to achieve the most desirable architectural and structural designs. This interaction and engagement develops during their professional career but needs to be nurtured during their undergraduate studies. The objective of this paper is to present the strategies employed to engage higher order thinking in structural engineering students in order to help them solve complex problem-based learning (PBL) design scenarios presented by architecture students. The strategies employed were applied in the experimental setting of an undergraduate module in structural engineering at Queen’s University Belfast in the UK. The strategies employed were active learning to engage with content knowledge, the use of physical conceptual structural models to reinforce key concepts and finally, reinforcing the need for hand sketching of ideas to promote higher order problem-solving. The strategies employed were evaluated through student survey, student feedback and module facilitator (this author) reflection. The strategies were qualitatively perceived by the tutor and quantitatively evaluated by students in a cross-sectional study to help interaction with the architecture students, aid interdisciplinary learning and help students creatively solve problems (through higher order thinking). The students clearly enjoyed this module and in particular interacting with structural engineering tutors and students from another discipline

Empowering single mothers in Iran : Applying a problem-solving model in learning groups to develop participants' capacities to improve their lives

Since 2000, a problem-solving model has been taught to the Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child, and teachers and  students of social work in two universities in Iran. Since 2006, with the initiation of UNICEF, social workers, psychologists  and even some psychiatrists in Iran have been learning this model. In 2008, a group of researchers created an empowerment-oriented  psycho-social group and private intervention project to assess whether a group of Iranian single mothers could use this model, which was traditionally used by professionals only, to effectively and independently meet challenges in their own lives. Our results show that all women used the model effectively and, consequently, made more deliberate decisions to improve their life situations. Some of the women succeeded in finding a job and many improved their family relationships. This study suggests that empowerment-oriented social work can help many clients to achieve their goals, and that this psycho-social intervention project can be a useful model for social work in Iran and many other societies.

Dyslexia, problem solving and text processing : a conceptual framework describing reading difficulties in dyslexia as an information-processing problem

Résumé : Une définition opérationnelle de la dyslexie qui est adéquate et pertinente à l'éducation n'a pu être identifiée suite à une recension des écrits. Les études sur la dyslexie se retrouvent principalement dans trois champs: la neurologie, la neurolinguistique et la génétique. Les résultats de ces recherches cependant, se limitent au domaine médical et ont peu d'utilité pour une enseignante ou un enseignant. La classification de la dyslexie de surface et la dyslexie profonde est la plus appropriée lorsque la dyslexie est définie comme trouble de lecture dans le contexte de l'éducation. L'objectif de ce mémoire était de développer un cadre conceptuel théorique dans lequel les troubles de lecture chez les enfants dyslexiques sont dû à une difficulté en résolution de problèmes dans le traitement de l'information. La validation du cadre conceptuel a été exécutée à l'aide d'un expert en psychologie cognitive, un expert en dyslexie et une enseignante. La perspective de la résolution de problèmes provient du traitement de l'information en psychologie cognitive. Le cadre conceptuel s'adresse uniquement aux troubles de lectures qui sont manifestés par les enfants dyslexiques.||Abstract : An extensive literature review failed to uncover an adequate operational definition of dyslexia applicable to education. The predominant fields of research that have produced most of the studies on dyslexia are neurology, neurolinguistics and genetics. Their perspectives were shown to be more pertinent to medical experts than to teachers. The categorization of surface and deep dyslexia was shown to be the best description of dyslexia in an educational context. The purpose of the present thesis was to develop a theoretical conceptual framework which describes a link between dyslexia, a text-processing model and problem solving. This conceptual framework was validated by three experts specializing in a specific field (either cognitive psychology, dyslexia or teaching). The concept of problem solving was based on information-processing theories in cognitive psychology. This framework applies specifically to reading difficulties which are manifested by dyslexic children.

Observed Social Problem Solving and Friendship Quality in Children with a Traumatic Brain Injury

Children who have experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI) are at risk for a variety of maladaptive cognitive, behavioral and social outcomes (Yeates et al., 2007). Research involving the social problem solving (SPS) abilities of children with TBI indicates a preference for lower level strategies when compared to children who have experienced an orthopedic injury (OI; Hanten et al., 2008, 2011). Research on SPS in non-injured populations has highlighted the significance of the identity of the social partner (Rubin et al., 2006). Within the pediatric TBI literature few studies have utilized friends as the social partner in SPS contexts, and fewer have used in-vivo SPS assessments. The current study aimed to build on existing research of SPS in children with TBI by utilizing an observational coding scheme to capture in-vivo problem solving behaviors between children with TBI and a best friend. The current study included children with TBI (n = 41), children with OI (n = 43), and a non-injured typically developing group (n = 41). All participants were observed completing a task with a friend and completed a measure of friendship quality. SPS was assessed using an observational coding scheme that captured SPS goals, strategies, and outcomes. It was expected children with TBI would produce fewer successes, fewer direct strategies, and more avoidant strategies. ANOVAs tested for group differences in SPS successes, direct strategies and avoidant strategies. Analyses were run to see if positive or negative friendship quality moderated the relation between group type and SPS behaviors. Group differences were found between the TBI and non-injured group in the SPS direct strategy of commands. No group differences were found for other SPS outcome variables of interest. Moderation analyses partially supported study hypotheses regarding the effect of friendship quality as a moderator variable. Additional analyses examined SPS goal-strategy sequencing and grouped SPS goals into high cost and low cost categories. Results showed a trend supporting the hypothesis that children with TBI had fewer SPS successes, especially with high cost goals, compared to the other two groups. Findings were discussed highlighting the moderation results involving children with severe TBI.

A Case Based Methodology for Problem Solving aiming at Knee Osteoarthritis Detection

Knee osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis and a major cause of impaired mobility and disability for the ageing populations. Therefore, due to the increasing prevalence of the malady, it is expected that clinical and scientific practices had to be set in order to detect the problem in its early stages. Thus, this work will be focused on the improvement of methodologies for problem solving aiming at the development of Artificial Intelligence based decision support system to detect knee osteoarthritis. The framework is built on top of a Logic Programming approach to Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, complemented with a Case Based approach to computing that caters for the handling of incomplete, unknown, or even self-contradictory information.

Age Prediction through Pelvis X-Ray Images - A Case Based approach to Problem Solving

It is well known that the dimensions of the pelvic bones depend on the gender and vary with the age of the individual. Indeed, and as a matter of fact, this work will focus on the development of an intelligent decision support system to predict individual’s age based on pelvis’ dimensions criteria. On the one hand, some basic image processing technics were applied in order to extract the relevant features from pelvic X-rays. On the other hand, the computational framework presented here was built on top of a Logic Programming approach to knowledge representation and reasoning, that caters for the handling of incomplete, unknown, or even self-contradictory information, complemented with a Case Base approach to computing.