Identificador: TDX:736
Autores: Domenech Auqué, Montserrat
Resumen:
The aim of this doctoral dissertation is to study: a) role of intelligence in problem solving, b) relationship between intelligence and metacognition, and c) role of metacognition in problem solving.N=140 students of Secondary School between 16 and 18 years old have participated, to whom formal (Differential Aptitude Test and Torrance Test of Creativity Thinking) and informal tests (Scales for Rating the Behavioural Characteristics of Superior Students and an Autobiography) were administered in order to identify high ability students (simple talent, double talent, triple talent, quadruple talent, and giftedness) and average ability students.Problem solving processes were studied with nine logical and insight problems (extracted from literature), as the Tower of Hanoi problem, Nine Dots problem or the Candle problem, among others. These problems had a limited time and solvers were asked to write all the steps carried out to solve them. Two of these problems were opened problems, that is, with different possible correct answers, and the rest of the problems were closed problems, so, with only one answer as the correct solution.In order to know the metacognitive aspects, the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (a metacognitive knowledge test) was administered. Moreover, two items about metacognitive experience of difficulty and execution was administered at the end of each problem resolution. The problems' correction was carried out with a correction system made out for this study, which allowed to catch some aspects of the initial state (comprehension, experience), the process (attempts, attempts evolution, use of the keys, strategies, errors, interferences and motivation) and the final state of the problem (solution). This system allowed us to quantify the qualitative data of problem solving.Statistic analyses revealed that intelligence has a relevant role in problem solving. Thus, the high ability group solved problems better, showing a greater comprehension, evaluating more often the different attempts carried out, founding the most important clues to solve the problems and applied them, making fewer errors and reaching the correct solution significantly more often than the average ability group. There was not found differences into the high ability group, finding a similar resolution among different talented profiles.The second group of results suggested a low or none relationship between intelligence and metacognition. In one hand, the same level of metacognitive experience, metacognitive knowledge, and metacognitive efficacy was observed between participants with high and average intelligence. Moreover, contingency tables revealed that high ability participants do not correspond with those with greater (or lower) metacognitive ability. The same absence of differences was found between different intellectual profiles into the high ability group.Finally, it was found that a high metacognitive efficacy (a score obtained relating the metacognitive experience and the real solution of the problem) helped the commission of fewer errors and fewer interferences. So, metacognition helps to reach a successful resolution.All these results point out the importance of include both aspects of development of intelligence and metacognition in the educative curriculum.
Repositori URV