Lecture 6

Question 1

What is a problem?

Answer 1

A situation where a living organism has a goal but does not know how this goal is to be reached.

Question 2

Problems are created because…

Answer 2

There is a goal
There is a need to think about how to achieve the goal
There is a lack of relevant knowledge to immediately solve the problem

Question 3

What are the 4 different types of problem

Answer 3

Well defined problem
Ill defined problem
Knowledge rich
Knowledge lean

Question 4

Well defined problem

Answer 4

All aspects of the problem are specified

assembling furniture

Question 5

Ill defined problem

Answer 5

Some aspects of the problem are unspecified (assemble furniture without instructions)

Question 6

Knowledge rick problem

Answer 6

Specific prior knowledge is required (crossword)

Question 7

Knowledge lean problem

Answer 7

Little prior knowledge is required (sudoku)

Question 8

What is reproductive thinking

Answer 8

re-using old experiences to solve a problem

e.g. trial and error learning

Question 9

What is productive thinking

Answer 9

Coming up with new responses or strategies for solving a problem

Question 10

Behaviourists Vs Gestaltists

Answer 10

Behaviourists: all problem solving is reproductive (trial and error)

Gestaltist: some problems can be solved by insight, the problem is restructured so the solution becomes clear

Question 11

Kohler & Birch

Answer 11

Kohler
Sultan the ape
Has to get banana from outside his cage
Provided with two sticks that can be joined

Birch
Apes raised in captivity
Sultan had trial and error learning in the wild

Question 12

Insight in Humans - Maier

Answer 12

Problem - how can I tie two strings together.
There were four solutions but Maier was looking for one particular solution

Gestaltists claim that this problem is difficult to solve in a trial and error fashion. Participants must restructure the problem until the solution presents itself.

Question 13

Does experience of problems help with problem solving?

Answer 13

If problem solving is just trial and error then more experience should lead to better/faster solutions

Question 14

Duncker- candle problem

Answer 14

matches, 3 small boxes full of tacks and 3 candles.

Fix candle to door frame so it burns in a stable fashion

Question 15

Functional fixity

Answer 15

Failure to perceive new uses for old objects

Participants who fail to solve problems often dont remember the boxes

Question 16

Luchins 1912 Water Jar Study

Answer 16

Studied effect of experience on problem solving
Controlled the past experience:
half were trained on complex 3 jar problems
the rest were given no training

New problem with 2 jar solution:
95% of no training group used 2 jars
64% of the trained group failed to solve the problem

Question 17

Einstellung

Answer 17

Mental set - a strategy used to solve a problem even when it is inappropriate or inefficient

Question 18

Evaluation of Gestalt approach

Answer 18

+ introduced and investigated insight as a method of solving problems
+emphasised restructuring and representational change- very influential concept
+ showed that experience does not always help problem solving

• focus on knowledge lean, well specified problems
• Insight and restructuring was vague. Describes what happens during problem solving but not how it happens

Question 19

Representational change theory

Answer 19

Attempt to integrate gestalt insight theory with information processing approach
Structure of problem determines what related knowledge can be retrieved from LTM
Changing the structure of the problem means different knowledge can be retrieved from LTM, may allow person to solve problem.

Question 20

Changing representation

Answer 20

Three main ways to change representation of problems:
elaboration: adding more information about the problem
contraint relaxation: changing how some aspect of the problem is interpreted
Re-encoding: changing how some aspect of the problem is interpreted

Question 21

Evidence of changing representation

Answer 21

Move one stick to make an equation correct
change values or operators
solvers would fixate on the operators but non-solvers did not

Question 22

Evaluation of changing representation

Answer 22

+restructuring does appear to help with many insight problems
+mechanisms of problem solving are better specified

• does not predict which types of restructuring will help problem solving
• no account for individual differences
• may be specific to certain types of problem

Question 23

Computational approach

Newell and Simon

Answer 23

Developed a computer simulation of problem solving. Designed to solve well defined problems.

Assumptions of general problem solver:
information processing is serial
we have limited short term memory capacity
relevant information can be retrieved from LTM

Question 24

Problem space

Answer 24

GPS based on human problem solving.
Problem space- representation of a problem
Initial state, goal state, all possible moves or operations to change the state of the problem, all possible problem states between the initial state and the goal state

Problem solving- changing the initial state to the goal state through a series on intermediate states

Question 25

Nerwell and Simon identified 2 important heuristics

Answer 25

1. Mean end analysis
   Identify difference between current state and goal
   form a sub-goal that reduces this difference
   Perform operation that will attain sub-goal
   e.g. following instructions to assemble IKEA furniture by making sub-components
2. Hill-climbing
   change current state to a state that more closely resembles the goal
   used if you dont really know how to solve the problem
   E.g. assembling IKEA furniture without instructions

Question 26

Evaluation of Newell and Simon

Answer 26

+works well with well defined, knowledge poor problems
Experimental evidence suggests we do use heuristics

-general problem solver may not always operate in the same way. Better at remembering previous states. Worse at planning future moves.
Only works with well defined problems, most human problems are ill defined.
Cannot account for insight
Cannot account for individual differences