Exam 3 Ch. 8

Question 1

It’s rarely possible to identify all the relevant factors that must be taken into account by solutions.

Answer 1

Open-endedness

Question 2

With so many considerations being actually or potentially relevant, our limited mental capacity is quickly over-loaded.

Answer 2

Complexity

Question 3

Many values must be served by solutions so difficult judgmental tradeoffs must inevitably be made.

Answer 3

Value tradeoffs

Question 4

Because of the phenomena involved, it’s difficult to confidently predict future developments or the effects of proposed actions.

Answer 4

Outcome uncertainty

Question 5

Methods covering the entire problem solving process.

Answer 5

Functional models

Question 6

The mind’s ability to monitor and control its own functioning.

Answer 6

Metacognition

Question 7

For instance, flexibility, open-mindedness, depth, breadth, soundness, clarity, validity, and freedom from bias.

Answer 7

Cognitive Virtues

Question 8

The ability to conceive situations in fundamental terms so useful lessons can be derived from experience.

Answer 8

Abstraction

Question 9

Factual, “what is the case” information that includes relevant concepts, principles, and pitfalls.

Answer 9

Declarative Knowledge

Question 10

Action-oriented, “how to” knowledge that includes relevant methods, heuristics, and strategies. Ex: How to ride a bike.

Answer 10

Procedural Knowledge

Question 11

Trial-and-error search for a solution among a limited set of possibilities.

Answer 11

Generate-and-test

Question 12

Search that uses knowledge to direct attention to places where good solutions are most likely to be found.

Answer 12

Heuristic Search

Question 13

Trying to reach a goal by a series of steps, based on local search, each leaving one closer to the goal than before.

Answer 13

Hill-climbing

Question 14

Starting from the known goal-state of a problem and working backwards towards its initial state to identify a solution path.

Answer 14

Working backwards

Question 15

A divide-and-conquer strategy that breaks large complex problems down into many small simple ones.

Answer 15

Decomposition

Question 16

After graduating with a degree, you apply and get a job making $40,000. You apply for a job and accept the job making $45,000. You see an ad that you could make $60,000. You apply for that job and get it. You do not apply anywhere else because you do not see anywhere where you could make more.

Answer 16

Hill-climbing

Question 17

Taking a car trip but have to be back in Cedar Falls by Monday, which means you need to be ing St. Louis by Sunday.

Answer 17

Working backwards

Question 18

You are preparing a powerpoint. How many slides do I want and what do I want on each slide?

Answer 18

Decomposition

Question 19

An informal method or good piece of advice, a quick-and-dirty way of performing a task that is often effective but which provides no guarantees. Ex: Cooking foods at low temperatures for long periods.

Answer 19

Heuristic

Question 20

A failure to recognize that familiar objects can be used for novel purposes.

Answer 20

Functional Fixedness

Question 21

A tendency to employ routine, mechanized responses to problem situations even when they aren’t appropriate.

Answer 21

Problem solving set

Question 22

A stapler can be used for things other than just stapling paper.

Answer 22

Functional Fixedness

Question 23

Represents what people actually do when solving a problem.

Answer 23

Descriptive model

Question 24

Specifies what people should do to be effective problem solvers.

Answer 24

Prescriptive or normative model

Question 25

Determining that a problem exists, that a situation bears improvement.

Answer 25

Problem Identification

Question 26

Representing a problem mentally, verbally, or graphically. Saying what the problem is.

Answer 26

Problem Definition

Question 27

Developing a deep understanding of the situation; identifying relevant problem types, structure, heuristics, and pitfalls.

Answer 27

Problem Analysis

Question 28

Finding out certain knowledge facts about the situation.

Answer 28

Diagnosis

Question 29

Generating possibilites, options, or good ideas.

Answer 29

Alternative Generation

Question 30

Developing a complex artifact that satisfies certain criteria and constraints.

Answer 30

Design

Question 31

Forecasting the likely future under specified conditions.

Answer 31

Prediction

Question 32

Assessing the goodness of entities or alternatives according to certain criteria.

Answer 32

Evaluation

Question 33

Corporations are owned by their shareholders.

Answer 33

Declarative knowledge

Question 34

How to complete your tax return.

Answer 34

Procedural knowledge

Question 35

If you have a flashlight that doesn’t work and a half dozen batteries, each of which may or may not work. You would try pairs of batteries until the flashlight works.

Answer 35

Generate and test

Question 36

When trying to find a Christmas or birthday present, people think about the recipients’s hobbies or interests, needs they’ve recently expressed, and favorite stores.

Answer 36

Heuristic search

Question 37

You are an accountant and you have little chance of earning more than $100,000 at your current job, but your income could be higher if you took a short-term salary reduction while switching to a career with great long-term earnings potential.

Answer 37

Hill-climbing

Question 38

If you had to perform errands before catching a plane, the easiest way to decide when to leave home is to start with the flight’s departure time, allowing time for errands, transportation, and airport check-in.

Answer 38

Working backwards

Question 39

Academic papers became much easier when splitting the task of generating content–the points I wanted to make in a paper–from the task of organizing–getting the points in an intelligible order with appropriate transitions.

Answer 39

Decomposition

Question 40

A decompositional strategy that successively breaks ends/goals down into means/subgoals and ultimately into tasks that can readily be performed.

Answer 40

Means-ends analysis

Question 41

A student’s goal of receiving a bachelor’s degree in management could be broken down into groups of courses –general education, business core, major, free electives–then into specific courses, and finally into the readings, exams, presentations, and paper writing involved in passing each course.

Answer 41

Means-ends analysis

Question 42

A box containing tacks could serve as a platform for mounting a candle: The box’s container function blocked recognition of its potential use as a platform.

Answer 42

Functional fixedness

Question 43

Subjects are provided w/ unlimited amount of water and jugs of varying sizes. They were asked to produce desired quantities of water. With 3 jugs with capacity of 5, 18, and 40 units, one can produce a quantity of 28 by pouring two 5-unit jugs and one 18-unit jug into the 40-unit container.

Answer 43

Problem solving set