problem solving Flashcards
what three aspects are involved in problem solving?
- goal directed (or purposeful)
- involves controlled (or conscious) processing
- lack of knowledge to produce an immediate solution
well defined problem
- all aspects clearly specified
- e.g. anagram
ill defined problem
- aspects of the problem are imprecisely specified
- e.g. writing an essay, not one correct answer
defining problems (Igor)
I- clear description of how everything is set up at the beginning of the problem (initial state)
G- what the problem should look like at the end ( goal state)
O- the actions (operators) to be taken to get the goal
R- what you are not allowed to do. (operator restriction
knowledge rich problem
can only be solved with relevant knowledge and expertise
knowledge lean problem
- do not require knowledge
- most info to solve problem available in initial problem statement
gestalt approach
- distinguished between two types of thinking
1. reproductive - systematic re-use of previous experience
1. productive - novel restructuring of a problem
- problems requiring productive thinking solved using insight
insight
- Involves a sudden restructuring of a problem
- Experience of suddenly realising how to solve a
problem
facilitating insight
- hints
- increase the number of solutions produced on insight problems
- even subtle hints are useful
- incubation
- problem is put to one side for some time
- subconscious mind countinues to work towards a solution
- forget previously failed strategies and adopt new approach
- incubation vs control group working continuously
- sleep effective form of incubation
alternative representations
- looking at extreme conditions
- black and white thinking
Thomas and liras (2009)
- participants required to solve two string problem
- regular exercise breaks e.g. swing arms
- task relevant- more likely to solve problem
- hints can be effective without conscious awareness to task relevance
changing problem representation
- sometimes encounter a block or impasse if represented wrongly
- need to change problem representation
- constraint relaxation, inhibitions on what is regarded as permissible removed
- re-encoding, some aspects reinterpreted
- elaboration, new problem info added
nine dot problem
- involves drawing four straight lines that go through all 9 dots without lifting pencil
- assume that lines must remain in confines
- key insight is to realise constraints must be react
past experience
- increase ability to solve problems
- can be misled by past experience
past experience
- increase ability to solve problems
- can be misled by past experience
functional fixedness
mistakenly assume given object has a limited number of uses
mental set
tendency to use familiar problem solving strategy that has proved successful in the the past
three jug water problem: lichens
- using jugs had to end up with a set amount of water
- second problem solved successfully by only 365
- used familar problem solving strategy but was inappropriate for a new problem
newell and Simon
- we have very limited stm capacity and processing is typically serial
- use knowledge lean problems
heuristics
- easy to use and often produce correct answers
- means end analysis
- note difference between current problem state and goal
- from sub goal to reduce difference between current and goal
- select a mental operator that permits attainment
cognitive misers
someone who is typically economical with their time and effort on tasks
cognitive reflection test
- provides evidence of extent to which people are cognitive misers
- overlap with use of heuristics
- misers resort to simplest strategy
- unlike heuristics (used due to limited capacity) misers are reluctant to engage in effortful processing rather than because they cannot
analogical problem solving
- involves using analogies
- analogies involve comparision between current/previous problems and similarties
- very important in everyday life, deal with novel situatations by relating them to situations encountered previously
types of similarity
- superficial, solution irrelevant
- structural, casual relation among main components
- procedural, concrete operations common
analogy detection
- when participants told story would help solve tumour problem, 80%
- however, only 40% when not informed relevance of story
- lack of superficial similarities
- the features shared help people see the relevance
expertise
considerable specialist knowledge
- very efficient at problem solving
- high level of thinking
knowledge-rich problems
- goes beyond that contained within the problem
better visual memory
- difference in performance not due to better visual memory
- when presented with positions that were unlikely to arise, experts no better
- chess players possess more chess related info in ltm
- accessed rapidly
- narrow down possible moves
medical expertise
- can make rapid and accurate diagnosis
eye tracking and medical expertise - technique provide info about focus of attention
several difference found between medical experts and novice - short fixation
- faster fixations on task relevant info
- more fixations on task relevant info
- longer saccade (rem)
eye tracking
is consistent with
- info reduction hypothesis , efficient and selective allocation of attention
- holistic model, from wider area of each fixation
plasticity
- changes in structure/function of the brain that affect behaviour and are related to experience
- taxi drivers greater volume of grey matter in postierior hippocampus
