Cognition: Problem solving

Question 1

What is meant by a problem?

Answer 1

When we have a goal but don’t know how to achieve it

Question 2

What is meant by thinking?

Answer 2

A process of mental exploration of possible actions and states of the world

Question 3

Name 8 forms of problems

Answer 3

Well defined problems, ill defined problems, knowledge rich problems (specialised knowledge needed,) Knowledge lean problems, Non adversary problems, Adversary problems (opponent involved,) large scale (months or years to solve,) small scale.

Question 4

What is known in a well defined problem

Answer 4

Initial state, end state and possible methods

Question 5

What is the Gestalt form of thinking

Answer 5

Changing the way the problem was seen, or in other words restructuring the way a problem is represented.

Question 6

What is meant by an insight?

Answer 6

A restructuring that leads to a rapid solution.

Question 7

Give an example of animals using insight in an experiment

Answer 7

Monkey stacking crates to get hanging fruit

Question 8

How did Duncker seek to demonstrate insight in humans

Answer 8

Using the think aloud method he showed them a diagram of an x ray into a tumour surrounded by healthy cells and asked how they would attack the cell without damaging the healthy cells.

Question 9

What was the result of Duncker’s experiment of insight?

Answer 9

People divided the problem into goals and sub goals before landing on the insightful solution to use a lens to focus a weak bundle of rays on the tumour.

Question 10

What is meant by set in regards to problem solving?

Answer 10

The tendency to persist with one approach to a problem

Question 11

Name and explain another barrier to insight as recorded by the gestalt psychologists

Answer 11

Function fixity is a difficulty in thinking of a novel use for a familiar object.

Question 12

Why may children be better at insightful riddles

Answer 12

They haven’t developed as strong functional fixity

Question 13

What was the major drawbacks for the gestalt approach?

Answer 13

A lack of clarity in their explanations (how restructuring came about.) It also did not address how we solve problems that do not require restructuring or insight.

Question 14

What is meant by a problem space?

Answer 14

An abstract representation of possible states of a problem.

Question 15

Name and explain the two sub types of problem spaces;

Answer 15

A state-action space is a representation of how problems can be transformed from starting state through intermediate states to the goal while a goal-subgoal space is how an overall problem goal can be broken down into subgoals and sub-subgoals.

Question 16

What three main methods can a state-action tree be approached systematically?

Answer 16

Depth first search (light load on memory, only one possible move at a time is considered moving down the tree. Breadth first search ( Heavy working memory load, considers each possible move at each level and storing the possible tree, this is an algorithm as it always reaches the goal.) Progressive deepening (goes down a certain depth, backs up, goes down another route the same depth, backs up and restarts. If it hasn’t been found it restarts again extending the depth. This is algorithmic)

Question 17

What is meant by a blind search?

Answer 17

They only classify states as a goal or non goal

Question 18

What is meant by the term heuristic

Answer 18

A problem solving method that often finds a low effort solution but is not guaranteed to solve.

Question 19

What was Thomas’s Hobbits and Orcs Experiment

Answer 19

Participants had to get 3 orcs and the 3 hobbits across a river without the orcs outnumbering the hobbits.

Question 20

What were the results of Thomas’s Orcs and Hobbits Experiment?

Answer 20

The minimum moves to complete the challenge was 11, their average was 20. States 5 and 8 presented most difficulty. State 5 could’ve been due to the number of possible move and state 8 could be due to their hesitancy to backtrack.

Question 21

Why are problems with a detour often difficult?

Answer 21

Because of the prevalence of simple hill climbing strategys.

Question 22

Give another name for a sub goal

Answer 22

An alternative action

Question 23

What is meant by hierarchical goal?

Answer 23

Subgoal analysis which is often referred to as problem reduction or as means-ends analysis.

Question 24

What was found during lab studies of the Tower of Hanoi task?

Answer 24

People tended towards problem reduction (means-ends analysis) as experience was built up.

Question 25

How does working memory limit problem solving

Answer 25

We can usually only look ahead to a few, usually one move.

Question 26

What is a detour problem

Answer 26

When the solver has to move away from the goal at some point to progress.

Question 27

How do gestalta and Weisberg differ in their view of insight problem solving

Answer 27

Gestalt believe it involves restructuring Weisberg thinks it ordinary processes of search and problem analysis.

Question 28

Compare insight and non insight problems generally

Answer 28

Feeling of warmth (closeness to solution) steadily increases in non insight problems while in insight problems it only comes suddenly at the end suggesting a sudden reconstruction. Feelings of efficacy at the task was much higher correlated with success for non insight than insight problems.

Question 29

What neurological differences were found between insight and non insight problems? Describe how these were found

Answer 29

Participants had to do 124 Remote associate test (RAT) items (word associations.) Then had to self report whether they found it through insight (aha) or non insight (systematic processes.) fMRI showed increased activity in the right anterior superior temporal gyrus. EEG showed activity in that area shortly before solution. This suggests differences in neural processes for the two problems.

Question 30

How did thinking aloud impact this task. What doubt surrounds this result.

Answer 30

impaired the insight challenges. However there were failures in replicating this and it could be because thinking aloud interferes with spatial tasks.

Question 31

What two main approaches are there to explain insight solving?

Answer 31

Representational change and progress monitoWhring

Question 32

Name the main stages of representational change theory;

Answer 32

Problem perception (person encodes the problem.) Problem solving (Heuristic search processes based on initial representation) Impasse (Draws a blank as initial response is misleading.) Restructuring. Partial insight (retrieval of possible actions following restructuring leads to a sequence of steps that achieve solution.) Full insight.

Question 33

What is meant by the restructuring step in the representational change theory

Answer 33

A new encoding is derived through elaboration, ( adding information to initial representation by adding previously ignored features) re-encoding (completely changing the encoding,) or constraint relaxation (loosening constraints of what is required in the goal or what actions are permitted.)

Question 34

What is the main source of difficulty for insight problems according to the progress monitoring theory?

Answer 34

inappropriate heuristics

Question 35

According to progress monitoring theory what triggers restructuring?

Answer 35

When monitoring their progress against some criterion, failure to meet this criterion triggers a restructuring rather than an impasse.

Question 36

What alternative theory for the difficulty of the nine dot task was proposed by the progress monitoring theory

Answer 36

Use of a maximising heuristic ( each move or decision is to make as much headway towards the goal as possible) the use of progress monitoring (progress is constantly monitored and if its too slow or inefficient then criterion failure occurs.)

Question 37

What evidence is there for the progress monitoring theory?

Answer 37

In the two alternative eight coin problem one variant could be solved in 20 ways if only one coin had to touch three others while the other couldn’t be solved this way. 92% of people solved the variant which couldn’t be solved that way while only 67% solved the other variant. This is thought to be because criterion failure occurs sooner.

Question 38

Explain the procedure of Jones’s experiment to compare representational change and progress monitoring.

Answer 38

It involved three conditions; in the normal condition four progressively harder puzzles followed by a puzzle where the black taxi had to be moved as an intermediate step as well as at the end to get out. In the rotated condition the layout was rotated 90 degrees so the exit was to one side. In the easy condition four easy puzzles were followed by the insight problem.

Question 39

What dependent variables were measured in Jones’s experiment to compare representational change and progress monitoring

Answer 39

Moves, times per move, eye movement fixations and durations.

Question 40

What were the two predictions for the two theories in Jones’s experiment to compare representational change and progress monitoring.

Answer 40

Representational change theory predicted that impasses would occur before the taxi was moved and that the rotated and easy conditions would lead to better performance. Progressive monitoring predicted there would be no difference between rotated and easy conditions and that early impasses would be associated with better performance.

Question 41

What were the results of Jones’s experiment to compare representational change and progress monitoring

Answer 41

Impasses tended to precede moving the taxi and that rotated and easy conditions did involve earlier impasses and showed better performance than the normal condition. They concluded that progress monitoring applies to the first stage of solving, leading to impasse, and that representational change applies to the breaking of the impasse and subsequent insight.

Question 42

What is meant by expertise?

Answer 42

The accumulated high level knowledge that allows outstanding performance in complex problem areas.

Question 43

How long does it take to become an expert

Answer 43

10 years intensive study

Question 44

What does expertise involve regarding memory?

Answer 44

Extensive memory for familiar patterns which cue appropriate actions.

Question 45

How do experts and novices of physics differ in their problem solving methods?

Answer 45

Experts spend more time analyse problems for longer to fit them into familiar schemas before working forward from the starting state towards the goal using approaches they recognise as promising while novices work backwards only a more effort full search as they lack schemas.

Question 46

Where is the emphasis placed in expert problem solving?

Answer 46

The recognition of familiar problem patterns and and application of previously acquired solutions as against extensive searching through possible action sequences.

Question 47

What is the name for problems with one or many correct solutions?

Answer 47

One- convergent

Many-Divergent

Question 48

Define creativity in relation to a product

Answer 48

Novel to the producer of the product and valuable in some way or meets a goal.