Problem solving in social interactions on the Internet: Rumor as social cognition

Rumor discourse has been conceptualized as an attempt to reduce anxiety and uncertainty via a process of social sensemaking. Fourteen rumors transmitted on various Internet discussion groups were observed and content analyzed over the life of each rumor With this (previously unavailable) more ecologically robust methodology, the intertwined threads of sensemaking and the gaining of interpretive control are clearly evident in the tapestry of rumor discourse. We propose a categorization of statements (the Rumor Interaction Analysis System) and find differences between dread rumors and wish rumors in anxiety-related content categories. Cluster analysis of these statements reveals a typology of voices (communicative postures) exhibiting sensemaking activities of the rumor discussion group, such as hypothesizing, skeptical critique, directing of activities to gain information, and presentation of evidence. These findings enrich our understanding of the long-implicated sensemaking function of rumor by clarifying the elements of communication that operate in rumor's social context.

The role of software tools in influencing creative problem solving in engineering design and education

Creativity is increasingly recognised as an essential component of engineering design. This paper describes an exploratory study into the nature and importance of creativity in engineering design problem solving in relation to the possible impact of software design tools. The first stage of the study involved an empirical investigation in the form of a case study of the use of standard CAD tool sets and the development of a systems engineering software support tool. It was found that there were several ways in which CAD influenced the creative process, including enhancing visualisation and communication, premature fixation, circumscribed thinking and bounded ideation. The tool development experience uncovered the difficulty in supporting creative processes from the developer's perspective. The issues were the necessity of making assumptions, achieving a balance between structure and flexibility, and the pitfalls of satisfying user wants and needs. The second part of the study involved the development of a model of the creative problem solving process in engineering design. This provided a possible explanation for why purpose designed engineering software tools might encourage an analytical problem solving approach and discourage a more creative approach.

Problem solving in architectural design

This thesis is presented in two parts. The first part is an attempt to set out a framework of factors influencing the problem solving stage of the architectural design process. The discussion covers the nature of architectural problems and some of the main ways in which they differ from other types of design problems. The structure of constraints that both the problem and the architect impose upon solutions are seen as of great importance in defining the type of design problem solving situation. The problem solver, or architect, is then studied. The literature of the psychology of thinking is surveyed for relevant work . All of the traditional schools of psychology are found wanting in terms of providing a comprehensive theory of thinking. Various types of thinking are examined, particularly structural and productive thought, for their relevance to design problem solving. Finally some reported common traits of architects are briefly reviewed. The second section is a report of u~o main experiments which model some aspects of architectural design problem solving. The first experiment examines the way in which architects come to understand the structure of their problems. The performances of first and final year architectural students are compared with those of postgraduate science students and sixth form pupils. On the whole these groups show significantly different results and also different cognitive strategies. The second experiment poses design problems which involve both subjective and objective criteria, and examines the way in which final year architectural students are able to relate the different types of constraint produced. In the final section the significance of all the results is suggested. Some educational and methodological implications are discussed and some further experiments and investigations are proposed.

Minority influence and optimal problem-solving

An analogous thinking task was used to test Nemeth's Convergent–Divergent theory of majority and minority influence. Participants read a (base) problem and one of three solutions (one of which is considered the ‘best' solution). They then generated solutions to a second (target) problem which shared similar structural features to the first problem. Due to the similarities between problems, the solution given to the first problem can be used as an analogy in solving the second. In contrast to Nemeth's theory, when the solution to the base problem was endorsed by a numerical majority there was not an increase in analogy-transfer in solving the target problem. However, in support of Nemeth's theory, when the base solution was supported by a numerical minority then the participants were more likely to generate the ‘best' solution to the target problem regardless of which base solution they were given. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Towards a web-based progressive handwriting recognition environment for mathematical problem solving

The emergence of pen-based mobile devices such as PDAs and tablet PCs provides a new way to input mathematical expressions to computer by using handwriting which is much more natural and efficient for entering mathematics. This paper proposes a web-based handwriting mathematics system, called WebMath, for supporting mathematical problem solving. The proposed WebMath system is based on client-server architecture. It comprises four major components: a standard web server, handwriting mathematical expression editor, computation engine and web browser with Ajax-based communicator. The handwriting mathematical expression editor adopts a progressive recognition approach for dynamic recognition of handwritten mathematical expressions. The computation engine supports mathematical functions such as algebraic simplification and factorization, and integration and differentiation. The web browser provides a user-friendly interface for accessing the system using advanced Ajax-based communication. In this paper, we describe the different components of the WebMath system and its performance analysis.

Application of a problem-solving methodology to software usability

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Conceptual Idea of Identification of Patterns and Problem Solving in the Human’s Memory and the Possibilities to Use it in Artificial Intelligent

Given cybernetic idea is formed on the basis of neurophysiologic, neuropsychological, neurocybernetic data and verisimilar hypotheses, which fill gaps of formers, of the author as well. First of all attention is focused on general principles of a Memory organization in the brain and processes which take part in it that realize such psychical functions as perception and identification of input information about patterns and a problem solving, which is specified by the input and output conditions, as well. Realization of the second function, essentially cogitative, is discussed in the aspects of figurative and lingual thinking on the levels of intuition and understanding. The reasons of advisability and principles of bionic approach to creation of appropriate tools of artificial intelligent are proposed.

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.