8- Information Processing Approaches

Question 1

What is involved in the problem space?

Answer 1

Initial state, goal state, problem constraints, operators

Question 2

What are the characteristics of the problem space?

Answer 2

It is reactive and responsive

Question 3

What 2 concepts are involved in heuristics?

Answer 3

Hill climbing and means-end analysis

Question 4

Why are heuristics used?

Answer 4

There are limited problem solving capacities

Question 5

How are some problems solved instead of being solved by insight?

Answer 5

By working through the problem space

Question 6

What does successful problem solving require?

Answer 6

Domain specific knowledge and general problem solving strategies

Question 7

What is the problem space?

Answer 7

The set of all possible states

Question 8

What do problem solvers do?

Answer 8

Use strategies to explore the space until a solution is found

Question 9

What did Newell and Simon show by running computer stimulations?

Answer 9

Humans and computers solve problems in the same way

Question 10

What did Novick and Bassok say about the problem space?

Answer 10

It is more like an environment than a programme

Question 11

What did Novick and Bassok say are important when creating the environment of the problem space?

Answer 11

Individual differences

Question 12

What are the 3 reasons that problems can be difficult?

Answer 12

1. Problem space may be large and exceed working memory capacity
2. Operators may be difficult to apply
3. Constraints can be hard to define

Question 13

What are heuristics?

Answer 13

Shortcuts that simplify the need to think about the whole problem space

Question 14

What is hill climbing?

Answer 14

Choosing a move that takes you towards the goal one step at a time

Question 15

What does the best move for problem solving often involve?

Answer 15

Temporarily moving away from the goal

Question 16

What do we do in means-end analysis?

Answer 16

Identify the goal state and work backwards identifying each problems that needs to be solved in order to reach the goal state

Question 17

How do we divide problems?

Answer 17

Into sub-problems

Question 18

Why do we divided problems into sub-problems?

Answer 18

Sub-problems can be solved more efficiently than the whole problem

Question 19

When is the availability heuristic employed?

Answer 19

When people are asked to assess the frequency of a class or the plausibility of a particular development

Question 20

When is a representativeness heuristic employed?

Answer 20

When people are asked to judge the probability that an object or event belongs to class or process

Question 21

What are cognitive biases?

Answer 21

Systematic errors in cognitive processes

Question 22

What do cognitive biases lead to?

Answer 22

Heuristics

Question 23

What is a confirmation bias?

Answer 23

Tendency to focus on information that supports your opinion

Question 24

What is the sunk cost effect?

Answer 24

We continue a behaviour because of previous investment when no longer sensible to do so

Question 25

What is the disposition effect?

Answer 25

Sell shares that have gone up and keep shares that have gone down

Question 26

Why are past experiences helpful? (3 points)

Answer 26

• Problem space has previously been successful, so strengthened and stored for later recall
• Expertise
• Heuristics

Question 27

Why are past experiences not helpful?

Answer 27

They create cognitive biases