Biological and environmental factors affecting problem-solving ability

3 Problem Solving Problem solving is an everyday cognitive function that people must embark upon no matter what their station in life. Children must find ways to overcome obstacles with toys or with playmates in order to get what they want. Adults must find ways to deal with traffic or commutes to work, workplace issues, and so on. Numerous factors can also impact the extent to which people can effectively problem solve—and these can be both biological and environmental. One’s daily habits (drinking, lack of exercise, diet, lack of sleep, drug use, etc.) can all impact one’s ability to perform cognitive functions. Biological factors like development through the growth stages or genetics can also serve as factors in cognitive processing (Tucker-Drob, Briley & Harden, 2013). Children, after all, may resort to crying in their young attempts to overcome problems. Adults, on the other hand, are more likely to resort to logic or scheming. Strategies that can be implemented to improve problem solving include engaging in mental exercises that stimulate the brain muscle and keep the mind active. Some examples include playing word games, reading, using one’s memory to commit passages to memory, and practicing solving word problems or even writing essays about issues that you would like to think more deeply about. Writing papers, for instance, on certain problems and then finding ways to address the problem in the paper by supporting your argument with facts and logic can be a great way to help a person develop his or her problem solving ability. Taking refreshment can also be helpful, however, as this gives the mind rest and allows it an opportunity to process what it has absorbed over a period time. Once rest has been taken, the mind and body can both be reenergized and restored, ready to get back to problem solving. Another strategy that can be used is to engage with others, learn to understand what motivates people, how to read them, and how to identify what it is they want when you meet them.