ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a situated cognition approach to problem solving, specifically borrowing concepts from ecological psychology to characterize problem solving as a perception-action process. Embedded within the social and technological context of piloting is the potential effect of a number of social psychological variables that can influence the construction of meaning. The chapter describes some examples of how people view of problem solving has been enhanced by borrowing concepts from ecological psychology. To understand more about the nature of situated problem solving, the nearly unlimited number of variables present in real-world problem solving must be controlled. Without some constraints on the problem space and activities possible in that environment, the inherently nonlinear multivariate nature of the context would be too complex for any existing psychometric models or research designs. Problem solving in nonemergency surgery begins weeks or months before the actual operation.
