1.2.1 Context of practical problem solving

There is virtually unanimous agreement on the centrality of context for understanding practical problem solving. This view, which holds that practical problem solving cannot be separated from the context in which it unfolds, is referred to as the contextual perspective (e.g., Dixon, 1994; Wertsch and Kanner, 1994). In general, the metaphor used to describe the contextual approach is that of trying to follow forever changing events (i.e., the life course is represented as being a series of changing events, activities, and contexts). When applied to studies of practical problem solving, this perspective assumes that (1) the demands posed by these contexts vary across development; (2) strategies accomplishing adaptation differ across contexts; (3) these strategies also differ across individuals; and, finally, (4) the effectiveness of everyday problem solving is determined by the interaction of individual and context (Berg and Calderone, 1994). Several studies have found that the context in which the problem occurs (e.g., family, work, or school) impacts everyday problem solving in all its components (content, goal, and strategy).

Consider the following examples. Ceci and Bronfenbrenner (1985; Ceci, 1990), employing a dual context paradigm, have conducted a series of studies concerning the impact of physical and social contexts on cognition. The dual context paradigm proposes that children be made to perform the same task in two or more contexts. The assumption here is that some settings elicit more effective forms of cognition than do others by stimulating or activating different strategies. The Ceci-Bronfenbrenner view is that a task perceived in a modified form might recruit a set of strategies acquired previously but not elicited by the original, unmodified task. (For example, a video-game task, which is a modification of a simple task requiring a participant to follow the movements of dots, might recruit strategies that the dot task alone would not.) Cohen (1996) studied the mathematically-oriented activity of 3- and 4-year olds and found that, when mathematical operations were embedded in the broader context of a "play-store" setting, children were able to solve problems that exceeded an age-appropriate level of difficulty. In addition, the children satisfied the demands of the task in using a variety of solution strategies.

One of the most interesting developments in studies on context and practical problem solving concerns the effect of compensation: the phenomenon in which gains in (mostly) practical cognition balance out age-related decrements in others. Researchers argue that compensation—considered in terms of the dynamic relationship between the individual's changing cognitive skills and expectations of performance, on the one hand, and shifting contextual demands, on the other hand—should be viewed as central to cognitive aging (e.g., Dixon, 1994). One example of practical cognition compensating for declines in g-based cognitive performance is older adults' effective use of external aids. One common source of external cognitive aid is other people. For example, Dixon and his colleagues (Dixon, 1994) explored the extent to which older and younger adults use same-age collaborators in solving memory problems and found that older adults use previously unknown collaborators to boost their performance levels to a much greater extent than do younger adults.

Two other important characteristics of the context in which practical problem solving occurs, which might explain some aspects of the observed development variability in practical cognition, are the complexity and familiarity of the context.