Supports the hypothesis that preschool children produce more private speech during problem solving after they have interacted with a collaborative adult (experienced by them as a competent helper) than after they have interacted with a non-collaborative adult. Conceptualizes private speech both as a reaction to the task and as an indirect appeal…

Sponsored by National Institute of Mental Health grant MH-08274.

Three-member groups were formed from students in an introductory college biology course. Each group undertook four problem-solving sessions which were tape-recorded. Transcripts were used to analyze verbal communication behaviors during the sessions. A category system containing four task categories, four negative social emotional categories, and…

Analyzes and categorizes directional factors, and exploratory sequences related to them, via videotaped sessions of two teenage school work groups. Shows stimuli which initiate exploratory sequences are found for all directional factors in problem solving or decision making. Reveals rule-governed or routinized behavior relates to directional…

The verbal interactions among pupils engaged in problem-solving tasks were studied in an attempt to explore the effectiveness of small-group learning in science. Interactions were predominantly task related, but their content rarely rose above the level of "factual information" interchange. Information exchange at higher cognitive levels…

This study was conducted to examine the developmental patterns in young children's ability to use others as a resource in problem-solving situations and to compare the roles that mothers and same-age peers play as resources for children in such situations. A total of 48 middle-class 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children participated in the study with…

Four studies report on the performance of fifth-grade child dyads and adult dyads on three problem-solving tasks, extending previous research on the structural properties of the communications and on factors influencing the accuracy of the communications. Aspects of performance investigated are: (1) relative participation of dyad members in the…

To investigate whether problem-based learning leads to conceptual change, the cognitive and metacognitive processes of a group of medical students were studied during the problem analysis phase, and their verbal communication and thinking processes were analyzed. Stimulated recall of the thinking process during the discussion detected a conceptual…

One hundred and ten college students, placed in 22 problem solving discussion groups, interacted for three fifty minute periods each. Three trained observers systematically recorded the interaction. Group members were classified as being task or socio-emotionally oriented and the functional leader in each group was identified by role category.…