An Investigation of the Causal Relation between Perceived Characteristics of Problems and Problem-Solving Performance

An Investigation of the Causal Relation between Perceived Characteristics of Problems and Problem-Solving Performance

This study investigated the effects of problem characteristics defined by perceived structuredness, complexity, situatedness, and information richness on mathematical problem-solving performance. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the effects of problem characteristics obtained from participants' subjecttive ratings of their problem-solving performance. In line with the causal model, the analyses showed that structuredness, complexity, situatedness except for information richness attribute accounted for the unique variance in the prediction of successful problem-solving performance directly. The information richness attribute indirectly accounted for unique variance in the prediction of successful problem-solving performance.