Complex Problem Solving and its Position in the Wider Realm of the Human Intellect

Dear Colleagues,

Ever since the first standardized measures of human intelligence emerged, they have been criticized from various angles and for various reasons. One of these criticisms related to the abstract nature of standard intelligence tests, such as the Raven Matrices, that were arguably out of touch with reality and had little real world relevance. When research on complex problem solving (CPS) emerged in the 1970s, it was precisely the complex and highly face-valid nature of the problem scenarios used in this line of research, in which participants had to explore complex systems and work through environments that tried to mimic real-life scenarios, which was considered important and a viable alternative to standard measures of intelligence.
However, the high hopes put into CPS diminished rather quickly because the conceptual delineation between CPS on the one hand and general intelligence on the other hand was difficult to establish and to bolster through empirical studies. In fact, conceptual fuzziness and issues in the assessment and the scoring of complex scenarios hampered a thorough understanding of CPS as a latent construct, its assessment, and its utility for human performance in general. It was only recently that CPS was re-discovered, partly due to new assessment approaches that solved some of the former issues and partly due to the emerging conceptual relevance of CPS as a 21st century skill. For instance, CPS was assessed in over 50 countries worldwide in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in its 2012 cycle, and international reporting on country differences has had a palpable impact on research, policy, and education.
While interest on CPS has, thus, risen anew, a number of yet unanswered questions related to the nature of CPS as a latent variable (e.g., cognitive and non-cognitive dimensions; relation to other components of human intelligence; role of prior knowledge in complex problem solving), its assessment (e.g., convergent validity between different assessment approaches; balance between ecological validity and psychometric scaling), and the practical relevance of CPS (e.g., prediction of real-world problem solving performance, added value of CPS beyond well-established predictors) remain unanswered. It is the aim of this special issue to contribute to the academic discussion concerning CPS and, in doing so, advancing our knowledge in a field of notable significance. We invite research articles, review articles, commentaries, as well as communications for inclusion into this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Samuel Greiff
Dr. Ronny Scherer
Guest Editors

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