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This research was undertaken to investigate the effects of solid modeling and visualization on technical problem solving. The participants were 47 students enrolled in solid modeling classes at Southeast Missouri State University. The control and experimental groups consisted of 23 and 24 randomly assigned students respectively. This study was a posttest only design that used logistic regression to analyze the results. Both groups were required to take the Purdue Spatial-Visualization Test/Visualization of Rotations (PSVT/TR). Participants in the control group used only sketching to design their solutions while participants in the experimental group used parametric solid modeling software to design their solutions. All participants then constructed prototypes of their designs. The prototype was evaluated to determine if it successfully met the design specifications. The findings revealed that visualization was a significant predictor of technical problem solving as defined by successful prototype construction (p=.021). There was no significant difference between the sketching and solid modeling design methods used for technical problem solving (p=.752). The interaction between the method of design, solid modeling or sketching, was analyzed to determine if using solid modeling would offset low visualization scores It was found that the interaction was not significant (p=.393). / Ph. D.

This study investigated the usefulness of providing successful and unsuccessful example solutions in enhancing students' technological problem-solving efficiency. Prior research exploring worked example solutions indicated improved problem-solving efficiency when solutions were structured in a fashion that decreased the amount of extraneous cognitive load and increased the amount of germane cognitive load as specified by cognitive load theory. Fifty-one 7th and 8th grade students enrolled in technology education courses were selected from one school in the southwest region of Virginia. Participants completed three technological problem-solving tasks that included elevated load, cantilevered weight, and energy absorption using supply kits containing simple modeling materials. Problem-solving efficiency was determined by combining the amount of elapsed time across all three tasks. A 3 x 3 mixed factorial ANOVA was used to analyze the data. Data analysis revealed trends similar to worked example research in mathematics and science, but no significant difference among the three groups was found in this study. / Ph. D.

The purpose of the current study was to examine the mediating role of social problem solving skills in explaining the relationship between early aggression and later behavior problems. Additionally, the moderational role of social problem solving skills was also examined. The criteria proposed by Baron and Kenny (1986) and Holmbeck (1997) were followed to test the mediational and the moderational models. Regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between early aggression and social problem solving skills, social problem solving skills and later behavior problems, and early aggression and later behavior problems. Results indicated that social problem solving skills do not mediate the relationship between early aggression and later behavior problems. However, social problem solving skills do moderate this relationship. Further, it was the number of categories generated as opposed to the number of solutions that was the better predictor. The clinical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. / Master of Science

Diversity in the workplace remains a priority for leaders and managers as the dynamic nature of the global marketplace necessitates that organizations develop and maintain a competitive advantage in their field. Learning has long been touted as the key to leveraging limited resources to gain a corner in the market. However, organizations continue to struggle with the management of diversity, as well as systems and processes that promote learning at an organizational level. This study sought to explore a theorized relationship between individual problem-solving style, an aspect of cognitive diversity, and organizational learning capability. Two Midwestern companies participated in this sequential explanatory mixed methods study that aimed to: (a) examine the influence of cognitive style on organizational learning; (b) explore the differences between more adaptive and more innovative individuals, with respect to their organization's cognitive climate, in terms of their development and modification of learning frameworks and shared mental models; (c) determine what role more adaptive and more innovative individuals play in catalyzing organizational learning, namely double-loop and deutero-learning; and (d) identify inhibitors of double-loop and deutero-learning, distinguishing differences for more adaptive and more innovative problem solvers. Findings indicate that there was no relationship between problem-solving style, measured by KAI total scores, and organizational learning capability total scores in one organization and a small correlation between the scales of a second organization. This finding supports Kirton's (2011) assertions that problem-solving style is independent of learning, but some organizations may have small relationships between individual's problem-solving style and organizational learning based on various organizational dynamics. Five themes emerged as cultural mediators of cognitive diversity in the context of catalyzing organizational learning: 1) corporate expectations that create a clear, concise shared mental model for employee behavior and decision making (produced and promoted via an organizational guidebook); 2) the use of agreed-upon structures and methodologies for solving problems; 3) the employment of former military officers (due to the specific skills and experiences needed to successfully fulfill specific roles); 4) the development and nurturing of healthy teams; and, 5) an expectation of boundary-less collaboration. These themes, collectively, assert the importance of a culture that puts culture first. In practice, leaders and managers may find that a clearly defined culture that supports and promotes the use of systems and procedures to collaboratively solve problems and extend learning from individual to organizational is essential to mitigating the challenges that may result from exploiting cognitive diversity in the workplace. / Ph. D. / Change is a constant for organizations as they strive to compete for resources in a global marketplace. In order to gain and maintain a competitive advantage, organizations are challenged to manage change, as well as diversity and differences among employees, effectively. An understanding of how these differences, namely cognitive diversity, impact problem solving and learning is central to this study, as diversity in the workplace continues to increase and the need to problem solve and learn together necessitates management of this particular aspect of diversity. Furthermore, the relationship between these two processes, specifically at the individual level, has not been clearly explicated. This study sought to explore a central question: Does the manner and style by which an individual prefers to engage in the problem-solving process catalyze organizational learning in the form of revised policies and procedures (single-loop), amended norms, values, or core focus (double-loop), or changes to the frameworks and mental models that produce learning outcomes (deutero-learning)? Two Midwestern companies participated in this study and provided the first empirical data to suggest that problem-solving style is unrelated to one’s organizational learning capability. Through a series of interviews, five practices appear to mediate aspects of an organization’s culture and reduce the challenges associated with the management of cognitive diversity that often limit the success of problem solving and learning efforts. These mediating cultural factors are: 1) corporate expectations that create a clear, concise shared mental model for employee behavior and decision making (produced and promoted via an organizational guidebook); 2) the use of agreed-upon structures and methodologies for solving problems; 3) the employment of former military officers (due to the specific skills and experiences needed to successfully fulfill specific roles); 4) the development and nurturing of healthy teams; and, 5) an expectation of boundary-less collaboration. While these findings are not novel, they do underscore the importance of culture in developing the systems and structures that promote effective problem solving and learning at an organizational level. These results suggest that leaders and managers must continue to advocate for and manage cognitive diversity as the problems faced by organizations today are more complex and intractable. By employing mediating cultural factors and investing resources in a “culture first” environment, the benefits of cognitive diversity can be exploited for organizational gain and managed to minimize coping. Championing a strategic learning environment provides a context in which individual learning and social structures permit powerful higher-order learning that engages, challenges, clarifies, and optimizes the shared resources available for problem solving and organizational success.

This thesis describes user interface and visualization components in the problem solving environment "Site-Specific System Simulator for Wireless System Design" (S4W) developed by CS and ECE faculty and students at Virginia Tech. S4W integrates visualization and computational tools with a high level user interface. The objective of this PSE is to improve the ability of wireless design engineers to design an indoor wireless system through the aid of various simulation and visualization components. S4W provides engineers with the facility of thinking in terms of the overall task of designing the system for optimal performance. They need not to worry about computation, data-management and connectivity issues. The choice of method for interaction between service logic within a PSE and its user is always a challenging issue. The selection of user interaction channel is mostly dictated by the characteristics of the problem domain. For S4W, we chose to build a graphical user interface as human interaction interface, which was connected to other components via a high speed Local Area Network (LAN). The other key form of user interaction in a PSE is the visual representations of the abstract data results of simulations, perceived as user interface for data. The Complex nature of data sets in the domain of wireless simulations calls for a customized set of visualization tools. To address the specific needs of visualizations for S4W, ad hoc visualization tools were developed and integrated into the graphical user interface. A comparison of the integrated PSE and an earlier collection of unintegrated tools and scripts is presented. / Master of Science