Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Views of Intelligence
- 2 The Theory of Successful Human Intelligence
- 3 Metacognition: Thinking with Metacomponents
- 4 Advanced Problem-Solving Steps
- 5 Cognitive Processing: Performance Components (I)
- 6 Cognitive Processing: Performance Components (II)
- 7 Logical Reasoning and Analysis of Arguments: Performance Components (III)
- 8 Inference and Inferential Fallacies
- 9 Knowledge-Acquisition Components
- 10 Coping with Novelty
- 11 Deciding for Creativity
- 12 Automatizing Information Processing
- 13 Practical Intelligence
- 14 Why Intelligent People Fail (Too Often)
- References
- Author Index
- Subject Index
5 - Cognitive Processing: Performance Components (I)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Views of Intelligence
- 2 The Theory of Successful Human Intelligence
- 3 Metacognition: Thinking with Metacomponents
- 4 Advanced Problem-Solving Steps
- 5 Cognitive Processing: Performance Components (I)
- 6 Cognitive Processing: Performance Components (II)
- 7 Logical Reasoning and Analysis of Arguments: Performance Components (III)
- 8 Inference and Inferential Fallacies
- 9 Knowledge-Acquisition Components
- 10 Coping with Novelty
- 11 Deciding for Creativity
- 12 Automatizing Information Processing
- 13 Practical Intelligence
- 14 Why Intelligent People Fail (Too Often)
- References
- Author Index
- Subject Index
Summary
Whereas people use metacomponents to plan, monitor, and evaluate their course of action during problem solving, they use performance components to do the actual problem solving. We might view metacomponents as the manager at a McDonald's, and performance components as the workers getting the burgers and fries together based on the manager's instructions. Metacomponents and performance components must work together. Metacomponents alone are not enough to solve a problem. They make the decisions about what to do, but do not actually do it. Performance components alone are inadequate for solving problems because they execute a problem-solving strategy, but they do not decide what strategy to use in the first place. Thus, problem solving requires both metacomponents and performance components.
The number of performance components used in problem solving is quite large. The performance components used in solving a problem depend on the type of problem. So, for example, a mathematical problem is likely to require different performance components than a verbal problem. It would be impossible and silly to try to list and describe all of the possible performance components here. Instead, we will concentrate on those performance components that research has shown to be most important in both academic and everyday problem solving.
ENCODING
Encoding is the process by which people understand a problem and access relevant information stored in their long-term memory. A good encoding of a problem can often go a long way toward solving the problem.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Applied Intelligence , pp. 105 - 146Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008