This paper examines how team creativity can be developed using the Synectics creative problem-solving approach by taking stickiness into account. Stickiness represents the difficulty learners experience in internalising knowledge and skills to perform a task productively. Using a quasi-experimental design learners' perceived change in team…

The demand for Spanish for specific purposes (SSP) university courses in the United States has prompted widespread curricular change in language departments over the last two decades (Klee, 2015; Sánchez-López, 2013). However, many instructors lack the tools and training needed to design SSP curricula that meet learners' communicative needs in…

Cognitive-based approaches to social and personality psychology have studied the structure of trait constructs in memory. The bipolar view of traits suggests that the activation of a trait construct such as "hostile" should be associated with the simultaneous activation of its semantic opposite "kind." The unipolar view, in…

Results indicate that for the task of generating counterexamples to invalid syllogisms, a primary source of difficulty is the first step of forming the negation of the conclusion, especially if the conclusion is a "Some are not" statement. When this step is done for the subject, most of the errors disappear. (Author/BJG)

Three problem-solving strategies--working backward from the unknown, forward from the given, and mixed--were applied to interrelated algebra equations. The mixed strategy was most popular and most efficient with grouped variables. Memory load or information-processing load differences among the strategies were evident. (CP)

Two characteristics that determine problem difficulty--the nature of the move search space and its interaction with other aspects of the task--were investigated in experiments in which 26, 69, 42, and 42 community college students attempted to solve the Chinese Ring Puzzle. The origins and implications of difficulty are discussed. (SLD)

Structuring leader behavior can increase group member morale by decreasing perceptions of failure. Task nature determines how much discussants believe they can improve on future tasks. Style of leadership is an important determinant of member satisfaction. (Author/MFD)

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether students expected course difficulty to be reflected in grade distributions and in the amount of out-of-class effort required for success. Students from both upper and lower division classes described the amount of time they expected to spend preparing for an easy class, a difficult class, and a…

Presents a study of task liking and intrinsic motivation using self-esteem, task label, and feedback analysis of variance. Reports that, for subjects with high self-esteem, feedback had strong impact on liking of a difficult task. Concludes that, for subjects with low self-esteem, feedback had strong impact on liking easy tasks. (DK)

This paper explored task difficulty from the perspective of the learner. It investigated the relationship between student perception of task difficulty and actual difficulty as measured by successful completion of a task. The study also collected information on those factors identified by students themselves as implicated in task difficulty.…

Describes a study of the mental processes college students use in thinking about speed. Piagetian-type tasks dealing with speed, time, and distance were used in an individual interview format. Males outperformed females on tasks relating to speed, but not on the other tasks. (TW)