problem solving Flashcards
Define Problem Solving
- it’s purposeful (goal-directed)
- involves controlled processes & isn’t totally reliant on automatic processes
- a problem exists when someone lacks relevant knowledge to produce immediate solution
Well-defined vs Ill-defined problems
Well-defined:
* problems where the initial state, goal & the methods available for solving problem are clearly laid out
* e.g. goal of winning chess
Ill-defined:
* problems that are imprecisely specified
* e.g. initial state, goal state & methods available to solve problem may be unclear
* e.g. goal of becoming happier
Gestalt: Reproductive vs Productive Thinking
Reproductive:
* involves re-use of pervious experience & knowledge
Productive:
* involves insight after restructuring the problem
Knowledge-rich vs Knowledge-lean Problems
Knowledge-rich problems:
* can be solved by those with relevant knowledge
Knowledge-lean problems:
* don’t require such knowledge as most of the info needed is contained in the initial problem statement
* most research focuses on these as such problems minimise individual differences in relevant knowledge
6 Theoretical Approaches to PS:
- associationist & behaviourist
- gestalt
- learning set
- representational change theory
- information processing
- adaptive control of thought-rational (ACT-R) model
Associationist & Behaviourist Approach
Associationist Approach:
Aristotle: Laws of Association:
- law of contiguity (after events occur together (in spatio-temporal proximity), the reoccurrence of only one event evokes the ‘memory’ of the others)
- law of similarity (experience or recall of one object will elicit the recall of things similar to that object)
- law of contrast (experience or recall of one object will elicit the recall of opposite things)
Behaviourist Approach:
* Trial & error learning (Thorndike, 1898)
Trial & error learning:
- learning curve
Associationist & Behaviourist Approach: Evaluation
+trial & error learning can be applied to real-life PS
-the associationist laws & stimulus-response associations are limited to simple problems
-application is to reproductive problems, not productive problems
Gestalt Approach
Gestalt Theory (Wertheimer, 1954):
* PS is focused on productive or novel problems
Productive problems involve:
- cognitive restructuring: the representation of a problem is changed allowing a solution
- insight: the sudden realisation of a problem solution; accompanied by the “ah-ha” experience
Restructuring & Insight:
* problem is restructured & solution found
* experience the ‘ah-ha’ phenomenon (insight)
* Kohler’s (1925) apes
Functional Fixedness:
* the function of objects is fixed
* solution derived only if fixedness is overcome
* object used in untraditional way for problem to be solved
* candle problem (Duncker, 1925)
Gestalt Approach: Evaluation
+approach has left a legacy of tasks, problem types & data
+offered an alternative approach to the associationists/behaviourists
+Gestalt approach led to the information processing approach
-cognitive constructs ‘under-specified’ (e.g. insight, cognitive restructuring, etc)
Learning / Mental Set Approach
Luchins (1942):
* combines Behaviourist (trial & error) & Gestalt (insight)
* the tendency to use a familiar PS strategy that has worked before even when it’s not appropriate
* mental set can impair PS - use past experience knowldege to solve new problems - low level of processing - however is often useful
water jars study (Luchins, 1942):
* 3 water jars, need to make 1 jar 25 quarts
* ppts given familiar problems prior: 95% solved it
* ppts trained on water jar problems: 36% solved it
Bilalić et al (2008):
* chess players used familiar way rather than quickest way to win game
* mental set solves problem but not in the most efficient (quickest) way
Information Processing Approach
Newell & Simon (1972):
* people have limited STM capacity
* complex info processing is serial (one process at once)
* e.g. Tower of Hanoi - move one disc at once to solve
* problem space: possible states of problem - initial state, goal state, mental operators (moves)
* use heuristics (rules of thumb) & algorithms (complex procedures) to PS
What is the most important heuristic method? (Newell & Simon, 1972)
Means-ends Analysis:
* create sub-goal to reduce difference between current state & goal state
* select mental operator to achieve sub-goal
Info Processing Approach & Means-end Analysis: Evaluation
Info Processing Approach:
+comprises of a normative theory of PS (& allows investigation of deviations from the ideal)
+applied to numerous problems, including a re-interpretation of Gestalt theory
+problems solved using general-purpose heuristics
-ecological validity of problems is lacking (unfamiliar, little knowledge, well-defined)
Means-end Analysis:
+generally very useful & assists PS
-people sometimes persist with a heuristic even when it impairs performance (Sweller & Levine, 1982)
Representational Change Theory
Ohlsson (1992):
* may encounter a block when PS due to representing problem wrongly
* need to change problem representation for insight to occur
* similar to restructuring in Gestalt, but with more detail about processes leading to insight
Can change this in 3 ways:
* constraint relaxation: inhibitions on what is regarded as permissable are removed
* re-encoding: some aspect of the problem rep is reinterpreted
* elaboration: new problem info is added to the rep
Representational Change Theory: Evaluation
+extended Gestalt theory
-can’t predict when or why a problem’s rep will change
-de-emphasised important individual differences in PS skills
