An Empirical Investigation of the Underlying Cognitive Process in Complex Problem Solving

Abstract

Meetings are one of the most common collaboration formats for complex problem-solving (CPS). This research aims to formulate cognitive-oriented guidelines for productive synchronous CPS discussions. The study proposes a method to analyze the cognitive process and identifies the cognitive process associated with better CPS discussions. A conversation-analysis method was developed. Two indicators—source–outcome retrieval ratio and count of overlapped solution utterances—were proposed to evaluate the CPS discussion’s efficiency and effectiveness. Sixteen experimental CPS discussions were analyzed using this method. Correlation coefficients were applied to ascertain the cognitive features in CPS discussions with different levels of effectiveness and confirmed the applicability and reliability of the proposed methods. The results revealed that a good CPS discussion includes a regular progress summary, discussion conclusion, and high utilization of cognitive sources.