Exploring How Cognitive and Reading Skills Contribute to Collaborative Problem Solving

Collaborative problem solving (CPS) is recognized globally as a 21st-century skill that is important for learning and working. However, the role of foundational cognitive and reading skills in CPS is not yet well understood. This study explored the contribution of students’ cognitive and reading skills to their individual and dyad joint CPS skills. Participants were 199 students. Their CPS skills were assessed through a computer-based environment. Visual associative learning, visual sustained attention, and visual executive functioning were studied using the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB). Non-verbal cognitive capacity was evaluated with Raven’s Matrices. Reading skills were assessed using an online testing portal. Linear regression was applied. Cognitive and reading performance shared a common and significant, though relatively small, proportion of variance of students’ CPS skills. The paired partners’ CPS skills also played a significant role in individual students’ CPS skills (explaining 20% for cognitive CPS skills and 16% for social CPS skills). Our study shows that foundational cognitive and reading skills are important underlying factors, along partner’s CPS skills, in explaining CPS in a dyad setting. Teachers should take the relevance of paired students’ CPS skills into account when assigning them to work in pairs on CPS tasks.