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Development of a cognitive self-report using the ACTTheory of Cognitive Skill Acquisition
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to assess validity and reliability of the Cognitive Process Self-Report (CPSR), an investigator-designed, paper-pencil instrument for self-reporting active problem solving. Research questions addressed four areas: reliability measures, relationships between experience and CPSR scores, congruence of data to assumptions of J. R. Anderson's ACT* Theory of Cognitive Skill Acquisition, and similarity between subjects' problem characterizations and subsequent processing. Eighty volunteer subjects participated: twenty beginning-level and twenty senior baccalaureate nursing students, and forty registered nurses experienced in one of two areas--care of diabetics (N = 20) and care of children with blood disorders (N = 20). Subjects used the CPSR while solving two printed clinical situations. At a later date, a subsample of subjects solved one problem aloud into a tape recorder. Trained coders used rules, derived from protocol data obtained in an earlier study, to score responses from CPSRs and audiotapes into three cognitive skill categories: novice, intermediate, or expert. Data were interpreted using assumptions and stage-like mechanisms of the ACT* theory. Cohen's Kappa K statistic found the CPSR and coding process to be generally reliable. Subjects' responses from the two methods of data gathering were similar for students, but dissimilar for experienced nurses. Chi square analysis identified that lack of clinical experience was significantly associated with scoring novice (p =.001), and clinical experience of five or more years in the area a study problem was significantly associated with scoring intermediate or expert on that problem (p =.001). Overall, CPSR data supported the ACT* theory; because few subjects scored expert, evidence of expert-like ACT* mechanisms was limited. Kappa K analysis identified moderate agreement between stage levels of subjects' problem characterizations and subsequent processing. The study suggests that the CPSR is a reliable method to obtain data about how nurses organize and think through clinical problems. Interpreted according to ACT* theory, data can be used to understand and facilitate stage-specific student learning.
Subject Area
Educational psychology|Nursing|Psychology
Recommended Citation
Hartley, Rosemarie Claire, "Development of a cognitive self-report using the ACTTheory of Cognitive Skill Acquisition" (1992). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9225473.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9225473