Cognitive events in a problem-solving task: a qualitative method for investigating interactivity in the 17 Animals problem

Steffensen, Sune Vork; Vallée-Tourangeau, Frédéric; Vallée-Tourangeau, Gaëlle

doi:10.1080/20445911.2015.1095193

Cited by 82 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…For example, while teams are working toward an overall goal of restoring oxygen to the moonbase, numerous subproblems arise during the task such as how to repair specific components of the system that can only be accessed by a robot. Indeed, this polytelic situation is a defining characteristic of complex problems (Funke, 2010), and other types of problems, such as insight problems, may exhibit far fewer phase transitions (e.g., Stephen, Boncoddo, et al, 2009;Steffensen et al, 2016;cf. Weisberg, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Problem‐Solving Phase Transitions During Team Collaboration

2017

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Multiple theories of problem-solving hypothesize that there are distinct qualitative phases exhibited during effective problem-solving. However, limited research has attempted to identify when transitions between phases occur. We integrate theory on collaborative problem-solving (CPS) with dynamical systems theory suggesting that when a system is undergoing a phase transition it should exhibit a peak in entropy and that entropy levels should also relate to team performance. Communications from 40 teams that collaborated on a complex problem were coded for occurrence of problem-solving processes. We applied a sliding window entropy technique to each team's communications and specified criteria for (a) identifying data points that qualify as peaks and (b) determining which peaks were robust. We used multilevel modeling, and provide a qualitative example, to evaluate whether phases exhibit distinct distributions of communication processes. We also tested whether there was a relationship between entropy values at transition points and CPS performance. We found that a proportion of entropy peaks was robust and that the relative occurrence of communication codes varied significantly across phases. Peaks in entropy thus corresponded to qualitative shifts in teams' CPS communications, providing empirical evidence that teams exhibit phase transitions during CPS. Also, lower average levels of entropy at the phase transition points predicted better CPS performance. We specify future directions to improve understanding of phase transitions during CPS, and collaborative cognition, more broadly.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Problem‐Solving Phase Transitions During Team Collaboration

2017

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“…In a study of the 'wolves and chicken' problem, Guthrie et al (2015) show that the ability to interact with physical objects led to a reduction in 'illegal' moves and a reduction in decision latency (suggesting that participants were more efficient when they could manipulate physical objects than when they verbalised the approach to the problem). Steffensen et al (2015), in a fine-grained analysis of strategy in solving the 17 Animals problem, demonstrate how rearranging the physical artefacts in the task led to serendipitous recognition of the path to a solution. In each of these examples, the interactivity between the person and the materials to hand create opportunities for the recognition of problem solutions.…”

Section: Creativity and Action In Jewellery Makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

What the Jeweller’s Hand Tells the Jeweller’s Brain: Tool Use, Creativity and Embodied Cognition

Baber

Chemero

Hall³

2017

Philos. Technol.

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The notion that human activity can be characterised in terms of dynamic systems is a well-established alternative to motor schema approaches. Key to a dynamic systems approach is the idea that a system seeks to achieve stable states in the face of perturbation. While such an approach can apply to physical activity, it can be challenging to accept that dynamic systems also describe cognitive activity. In this paper, we argue that creativity, which could be construed as a 'cognitive' activity par excellence, arises from the dynamic systems involved in jewellery making. Knowing whether an action has been completed to a 'good' standard is a significant issue in considering acts in creative disciplines. When making a piece of jewellery, there a several criteria which can define 'good'. These are not only the aesthetics of the finished piece but also the impact of earlier actions on subsequent ones. This suggests that the manner in which an action is coordinated is influenced by the criteria by which the product is judged. We see these criteria as indicating states for the system, e.g. in terms of a space of 'good' outcomes and a complementary space of 'bad' outcomes. The skill of the craftworker is to navigate this space of available states in such a way as to minimise risk, effort and other costs and maximise benefit and quality of the outcome. In terms of postphenomonology, this paper explores Ihde's humantechnology relations and relates these to the concepts developed here.Philos. Technol.

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“…Future research may also explore whether, and by which processes, higher interactivity fosters unplanned actions and richer task representations through a more refined analysis of action possibilities and their impact on cognitive processes (see, e.g. Steffensen et al, 2016 for a probatonic analysis of another insight task, the 17 animals problem).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Incubation and interactivity in insight problem solving

Henok

Vallée-Tourangeau

2018

Psychological Research

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Insight is commonly viewed as originating from the restructuring of a mental representation. Distributed cognition frameworks such as the Systemic Thinking Model (SysTM, Vallée-Tourangeau and Vallée-Tourangeau, Cognition beyond the brain: interactivity and human thinking, pp 133-154, 2017), however, assumes that information processing can be transformed when it is distributed across mental and material resources. The experiments reported here investigated whether interactivity enhanced incubation effects with the cheap necklace problem. Participants attempted to solve the problem in a low-interactivity condition with pen and paper or in a high-interactivity condition with a set of metal chains. Performance was substantially better in a task environment that fostered a higher degree of interactivity at Time 1. There was evidence of an incubation effect as participants significantly improved in performance after a 2-week gap, particularly in the high-interactivity condition. Experiment 2 showed that the context within which people can enact their thinking following incubation is key to improve problem-solving performance. When the problem presentation changed after a 2-week gap (low interactivity to high interactivity or high interactivity to low interactivity), performance only improved for those who worked on a highly interactive task at Time 2. Taken together, these findings underscore the importance of adopting a systemic perspective when investigating incubation effects in problem solving.

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Cognitive events in a problem-solving task: a qualitative method for investigating interactivity in the 17 Animals problem

Cited by 82 publications

References 80 publications

Problem‐Solving Phase Transitions During Team Collaboration

Problem‐Solving Phase Transitions During Team Collaboration

What the Jeweller’s Hand Tells the Jeweller’s Brain: Tool Use, Creativity and Embodied Cognition

Incubation and interactivity in insight problem solving

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