Students' reported inner speech during mathematics problem solving was studied. Subjects from grades three to six were assigned to low-task or high-task difficulty groups. Between problems, students reported their inner speech. Both groups maintained an adaptive task-oriented problem-solving stance, with positive affect toward self. (Author/GDC)

Examines the relationship between development of logical processes required in deductive reasoning and their use by preschoolers, also considering possible explanations for children's deductive reasoning. The relationship of problem content to real-world knowledge and the sequence of presentation of problem types were found to affect the display…

Discusses five research areas offering guidance to people concerned about teaching problem solving in elementary schools. Areas are (1) components of problem difficulty; (2) the contribution of reading difficulties to problem-solving deficiencies; (3) characteristics of successful problem solvers; (4) children's use of problem-solving techniques…

Purpose of this study was to determine whether some major aspects of children's role-playing behavior can be coded reliably and whether role-playing behavior is related to role-problem characteristics and individual variables. (Authors)

Tested the hypothesis that increased task difficulty elicits more efficient problem-solving strategies from older adults, using "Twenty Questions" tasks with either 64 or 10,000 possible solutions. Although younger adults were more efficient, there was not evidence that task difficulty affected problem-solving for either age group. (Author/JAC)

On each of 10 trials, 80 college students were presented with a different set of five anagram tasks varying in complexity. Half the subjects rated the tasks for the amount of interestingness and half for the amount of pleasantness. (Editor/RK)

This article examines the relationship of cognitive processing and creativity and argues that educational interventions contribute to the development of creative thinking skills when they provide requisite knowledge structures and stress controlled application of these processes in solving progressively more complex problems. (DB)

This study determines the relative difficulty and associated strategy use of arithmetic (addition and subtraction) story problems when presented in American Sign Language to primary level (K-3) deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Results showed that deaf and hard-of-hearing students may consider and respond to arithmetic story problems differently…

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)

The influence of three variables on response to undecidability was studied: (1) dual- versus single-solution rules; (2) nature of the choice contrast, and (3) presence or absence of additional information to resolve the undecidability. Participants were college students and third, fourth, and fifth grade elementary school students. (RH)

Describes the game STRATAGEM and its usage by university students preparing for examinations. The game, which comprises questions coded by topic and level of complexity (recall, application, and inference), is designed to focus student attention on important content, foster accurate assessment of team potential, and encourage risk-taking.…

The problem-solving performance of elderly individuals was facilitated by manipulating the demands of problem-solving tasks. The fact that elderly individuals can use more efficient strategies under certain circumstances suggests that the elderly have such strategies in their repertoires. (Author)

Studies applying the matching law of R. Herrnstein (1961) to college students' choice (n=55 and 31) to complete difficult problems suggest that interspersing problems requiring less time to complete into an assignment may increase rates of reinforcement that can alter students' choice behavior and improve their perceptions of assignments. (SLD)

A review of research and theory on cognitive processes and their relationship to instructional technique since the early 1970s looks at the contributions of schema theory and artificial intelligence and their instructional implications, including cognitive load theory, worked examples for learning problem solving, and physical vs. mental…

Preschoolers presented with a difficult match-to-sample task requiring task analysis performed successfully when taught to overtly ask themselves questions about the salient features of each display and then answer the questions. Most subjects performed poorly when told not to use the self-questions and answers, but performed well again when…