Chapter 12- Problem solving and creativity Flashcards
Problem
Occurs when there is an obstacle between a present state and a goal , and it’s not immediately obvious how to get around the obstacle
Gestalt psychologists were concerned with
How people represent a problem in their mind and how solving a problem involves a reorganization or restructuring of the problem’s representation
Gestalt psychologists believe that finding a solution to a problem depends on
How the problem is represented in the mind.
Restructuring
What Gestalt psychologists call the process of changing an object’s representation. The circle problem is one example of restructuring- we can solve the problem when we realize the triangle in the circle can be made into a rectangle with 2 diagonals
Insight
Defined as any problem solution that involves a reorganization of a person’s mental representation of a stimulus or situation to create a representation that wasn’t obvious initially. Restructuring is often the outcome of insight.
Metcalfe insight experiment
Researchers hypothesized that participants working on an insight problem should not be good at predicting how close they are to the solution. Non-insight problems require a methodical solution, and participants should have an idea of how close they are to finishing. As they were working on the problems, participants were asked to make “warmth” judgements to indicate how close they were to finding a solution. For non-insight problems, ratings increased gradually until the problem was solved. For insight problems, ratings stayed mostly the same until just before the problem was solved, when ratings jumped. This supports the idea that the solutions to insight problems occur suddenly.
Analytically based problems
Also called non-insight problems. They are solved by a systematic analysis process, often using past experience.
Fixation
People’s tendency to focus on a specific characteristic of the problem that keeps them from arriving at a solution. According to Gestalt psychologists, this is a major obstacle to solving problems
Functional fixedness
Focusing on familiar functions or uses of an object. The candle problem is an example. Participants presented with the materials in the box found the problem more difficult than those presented with the materials separately from the box. When the box was seen as a container, it was difficult to solve the problem because the participants didn’t consider that the box could have another function (as a shelf in this case)
Two string problem (Maier)
Participants were asked to tie together 2 strings hanging from the ceiling. Solving the problem required using pliers to move the strings, since they were too far apart for one person to reach both. This was difficult to solve because pliers are usually thought of as tools, not weights. This is another example of functional fixedness
Mental set
A preconceived notion about how to approach a problem, determined by people’s knowledge about what has worked in the past. A mental set includes the preconceptions about the use of objects or preconceptions about how to solve a problem, which influences problem solving. Includes functional fixedness
Luchins water jug problem
Participants were asked to figure out on paper how they would obtain a certain volume of water using 3 empty jars. There was a mental set group that was given a demonstration for one problem, and a no mental set group, that just solved the next problem. All of the participants in the no mental set group used simpler solutions, which was much more than those in the mental set group. Mental set can influence problem solving due to preconceptions about how to solve a problem. Example of Gestalt problem solving in humans
Newell and Simon saw problems in terms of
Initial state (conditions at the beginning of the problem), intermediate state, and goal state (the solution of the problem). All 3 states together make up the problem space.
Tower of Hanoi problem (Newell and Simon)
Participants were asked to transfer discs on one peg to another peg, and there were various rules for things that were not allowed. Newell and Simon viewed problem solving as a series of steps, with each action creating an intermediate state. Their approach to problem solving provided a way to specify pathways from initial to goal states
Operators (Newell and Simon)
Actions that take the problem from one state to another. There might be rules governing the operator, or factors that restrict what actions you can take to solve the problem.
Means-end analysis
Proposed by Newell and Simon as a way to direct the search to use a strategy. The goal is to reduce the difference between the initial and goal states, which is done by creating subgoals. This strategy could be used to solve the tower of Hanoi problem
Subgoals
Intermediate states that are closer to the goal. A subgoal may actually appear to move away from the goal, but it helps to solve the problem eventually
Mutilated checkerboard problem
If we eliminate two corners of the checkerboard, can we cover the remaining squares with 31 dominos? Researchers hypothesized that versions of the checkerboard problem that were more likely to cause participants to recognize the correct representation of the problem would be easier to solve. Boards that emphasized the difference between adjoining squares did make the problem easier to solve because participants were more aware of necessary principles. This shows that solving a problem is easier when information is provided that points people toward the correct representation of the problem
Think-aloud protocol
Participants are asked to say out loud what they are thinking while solving a problem. The goal is to determine which information the person is attending to while they’re solving the problem. This protocol also reveals when participants experience a shift in how they perceive the problem (similar to the Gestalt idea of restructuring).
Analogical transfer
The process of noticing connections between similar problems and applying the solution for one problem to other problems
Analogical problem solving
Using an analogy- the solution to a similar problem to guide a solution to a new problem. Example- using the Russian marriage problem to solve the checkerboard problem
Target problem
In analogical transfer, the problem that the participant is trying to solve.
Source problem
In analogical transfer, the other problem that is similar to the target problem and therefore illustrates a way to solve it. The Russian marriage problem is the source problem in the checkerboard example
Radiation problem (Duncker)
Participants are asked to figure out how to use radiation to kill a tumor. At high intensities the radiation will kill healthy tissue, at low intensities the radiation will not harm the tumor. Solution- expose the tumor to many low intensity rays from multiple directions, which is the technique used in modern radiosurgery. This fits the Gestalt idea of restructuring.
Gick and Holyoak’s radiation problem analogy
Gick and Holyoak presented participants with a story about soldiers, where the solution was analogous to the solution of the radiation problem. After reading the story, the number of participants who could solve the radiation problem increased, but there were still 70% of participants who couldn’t solve it. When participants were asked to think about the story, their success rate doubled. This suggests that the information needed to recognize the analogy was present in people’s memories but hadn’t been retrieved. Participants do not seem to spontaneously transfer their knowledge of the base passage and require a hint about the bases relevance
3 steps of analogical problem solving (Gick and Holyoak)
- Noticing that there is an analogous relationship between the source problem and the target problem- this step is difficult
- Mapping the correspondence between the 2 problems. Participants have to connect parts of the source problem to elements of the target problem
- Applying the mapping to generate a parallel solution to the target problem
Analogical encoding
The process by which two problems are compared and similarities between them are determined. Participants can discover similar problem features if they’re asked to compare two cases that illustrate a principle
Trade-off strategy
A negotiating strategy where one person says to another person, “I’ll give you A if you give me B”. Used in Gentner and Goldin’s experiment
Contingency strategy
Refers to a negotiating strategy in which a person gets what they want if something else happens. Ex- an author can get a certain percentage of royalties from their book, but only if sales are high. Used in Gentner and Goldin’s experiment
Gentner and Goldin’s analogical encoding experiment- methods
Participants were familiarized with contingency and trade-off negotiating strategies, then were given 2 sample cases describing trade-off solutions. They were asked to compare the cases to come up with a successful negotiation. Another group did the same thing with contingency strategy examples. The groups were then given a new test problem that could be solved with either strategy.
Gentner and Goldin’s analogical encoding experiment- results
With the next text problem, participants tended to use the strategy that had been emphasized in the first problems. This suggests that having people compare source stories is an effective way to allow analogical encoding because it forces them to pay attention to problem features that enhance their ability to solve other problems.