Efektywność strategii rozwiązywania problemów intelektualnych - rozwój w okresie dorastania

Abstract

The paper presents the results of an inquiry into strategies of solving intellectual problems adapted by adolescents. Particular attention has been paid to the developmental aspect of intellectual functioning and to the conditions of increasing effectiveness of the strategies of problem solving. To verify the proposed hypotheses we carried out an experimental investigation on a group of 180 girls and boys divided into two age subgroups: one 11.1 - 14.6 and the other 14.7 - 17.11 years of age. The subjects were exposed to and asked to solve intellectual problems of different degree of difficulty, prepared by a group of psychologists. The following criteria of the effectiveness of the strategy of problem solving were asumed: the time of arriving at the solution, the structure of the process of finding the solution, the number of mistakes and the degree o f using the information given. Thus, the effectiveness of the problem solving strategy was treated as a multidimensional variable. The statistical method applied was the ANOVA analysis. The results of the investigation permitted determination of specific features of developmental transformations of effectiveness of intellectual strategies adapted by adolescents in situations of different degree of difficulty. These results make a basis for predicting the development of the effectiveness of the intellectual strategies in the period of adolescence, which may be of particular importance for didactic purposes. According to the results, in the period of adolescence, the differentiating influence of the actual conditions on the effectiveness of intellectual functioning of young people increases, which, thanks to psychological development, leads to growing adequacy of behaviour to actual situations. In the light of the obtained results, an increase in intellectual effectiveness can be treated as a function of the increasing level of development of the cognitive control of emotions.