Collaborative Problem Solving: Processing Actions, Time, and Performance

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Collaborative problem solving is a critical 21st-century skill.
• The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Program for International Student Assessment (OECD PISA) 2015 Xandar task provides a platform for studying collaborative problem solving.
• Understanding the interplay between actions, time, and performance is essential for educational and workplace contexts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between the number of actions, time invested, and problem-solving performance in a collaborative task.
• To analyze these relationships across different phases of the collaborative problem-solving process.
• To identify how these factors contribute to overall success in collaborative problem-solving.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the OECD PISA 2015 Xandar task, focusing on a United States data set.
• Employed confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to model latent variables: actions (A), time (T), and performance level (P).
• Analyzed relationships at both the overall task level and within specific task parts.

Main Results:

• For the entire task, increased actions were associated with decreased success and faster completion times.
• Conversely, higher performance levels were correlated with longer invested time.
• Specific, yet general, relationships between actions, time, and performance were observed within individual task parts.

Conclusions:

• The study reveals a complex interplay between effort (actions), time, and success in collaborative problem solving.
• Findings suggest that efficiency (speed and fewer actions) may not always equate to higher performance.
• These insights are vital for designing effective training programs to enhance students' collaborative problem-solving abilities for future success.