Problem solving & creativity (CH 12) Flashcards
What is a Problem?
-It is a situation in which you need to accomplish a goal & the solution is not immediately obvious
What rules do Gestalt psychologists rely on?
- The laws of perceptual organization
- They also belive that adopting the correct problem representation is the key to problem solving
What 2 factors did Gestalt psychologists focus on for problem-solving?
- They looked at how people represent a problem in the mind
- And how solving a problem involves a reorganization/ restructuring of this representation
What are the central ideas for the Gestalt Approach?
-That success in solving a problem is influenced by how it is represented in the person’s mind
What is Restructuring?
- It is the process of changing the problem’s representation
- It is also the outcome of the process Insight
What is Insight?
-Any sudden comprehension, realization, or problem solution that involves a reorganization of a person’s mental representation of a stimulus/situation/event to yield an interpretation that wasn’t initially obvious
What did Metcalfe & Weibe hypothesize in terms of their Insight experiment?
-They hypothesized that there should be a difference in how participants should feel when they are progressing toward a solution in insight problems vs non-insight problems
What was Metcalfe & Weibe’s Insight experiment?
-They gave participants insight & non-insight problems & asked them to make “warmth judgements” based on if they thought they were close to solving the problem (warm/hot) vs not very close (cold)
What were the 2 types of Insight problems given to participants?
- The Triangle problem= moving 3 dots from the triangle shape in order to make the triangle upside down
- The Link problem= a woman has 4 pieces of chain w/ 3 loops each & want to make them connect into a loop. She as 15 cents & opening a loop= 2 cents & closing a loop= 3 cents
What were the non-insight problems that Metcalfe & Weibe gave to participants in their experiment?
-They gave them Analytically based problems= math problems taken from a high school math text that involve factoring, solving for a variable etc
What were the results for particpants who did the Insight problems of Metfalfe & Wiebe’s experiment?
- That the warmth ratings began at 2 & didn’t change much until it suddenly jumped from 3 to 7 at the end
- SO 15 secs before they found the solution, paticipants did not feel that they were close to the answer
What were the results for participants who did the non-insight problems of Metcalfe & Wiebe’s experiment?
-The ratings began at 3 & then gradually increased until the problem was solved
What was the overall conclusion of Metcalfe & Wiebe’s insight experiment?
-That solutions for problems that are insight problems occur suddenly
What is a major obstacle according to Gestalt psychologists?
-Fixation
What is Fixation?
-It is people’s tendency to focus on specific characteristics of the problem that keeps them from arriving at a solution
What is a type of Fixation?
-Functional Fixedness
What is the Candle Problem?
- It is an example of functional fixedness
- Presented by Duncker
- It consists of being presented w/ candles, matches in a matchbox, and tacks & your mission is to mount the candle on a corkboard so that it doesn’t drip wax onto the floor when it burns
What did Duncker conclude from his Candle Problem experiement?
-He concluded that participants had a more difficult time when the matches were presented INSIDE the matchbox VS participants who were presented with all the materials OUTSIDE
What are the experiments that serve as examples for Functional Fixedness?
- The candle problem
- The 2 string problem
What is the 2 String Problem?
- Presented by Maier
- Consisted of being a task where participants had to tie 2 strings together hanging from the ceiling what were far enough to NOT be reached with both arms
- Other objects that were availble to help accomplish this task= pliers & a chair
What was the conclusion drawn from the 2 String problem?
- That 37 out of 60 participants could not solve the problem until Maier gave a hint that the strings could swing
- So 23 out of the 37 that couldn’t solve it solved the problem within the first 60 secs by using pliers as a weight for a pendulum
What makes the Candle Problem and the 2 String Problem difficult?
-It is difficult bc of people’s preconceptions about the uses of objects= type of Mental set
What is Mental Set?
- It is a preconcieved notion about how to approach a problem
- It is also determined by a person’s experience of what has worked in the past
What was the Water Jug problem?
- Provided by Luchins (used to show mental set)
- It consisted of participants trying to figure out on paper how to obtain a required volume of water given 3 empty jars for measures
- Jug A has capacity of 21 Quarts, Jug B=127 Quarts & Jug C=3 quarts
- Participants were split into Mental set group=having problem 1 as an example & solving 2-8 using the equation & the Non-Mental Set group=just solving 7 & 8 w/o the equation
What as the equation that the participants in the Mental Set group used to solve the Water jug Problem?
-that the desired amount= B-A-2C
What did Luchins Conclude from his Water Jug problem experiment?
-Mental set can influence problem-solving bc of the preconceptions about the FUNCTIONS of the objects & the preconceptions of the WAY to solve a problem
What is the Information Processing Approach to problem-solving according to Newell & Simon?
-The belief between Newell & Simon that problem-solving is a search that occurs between the posing of the problem & its solution
How did Newell & Simon see problems?
-They saw them as an Initial State= condition at the beginning of the problem & a Goal State= the solution of the problem
What is the idea of Operators?
- Introduced by Newell & Simon
- Operators are the actions that take the problem from one step to another
What is the Tower of Hanoi Problem?
- It shows an inital state of 3 stacked disks
- There are 3 rules that must be followed= Move one disk at a time from one peg to another, A disk can only move if there are no other disks on the peg, & Larger disks cannot be placed on top of smaller ones
What did Newell & Simon conclude about the Tower of Hanoi Problem?
-That the problem solving involved a sequence of choice of steps w/ each action creating an intermediate state
What is an Intermediate State?
-It is the conditions after each step is made toward solving a problem
What is Problem Space?
- All possible states that can occur when solving a problem
- Includes Initial state, Goal state, & all of the intermediate states for a particular problem makeup
Since there can be a wide variety of solution to a given problem, how do we decide which moves to make? especially when starting out?
- Newell & Simon state that the person HAS to search the problem space to find a solution
- And that one way to direct the search is through the Means-end Analysis strategy
What is the Means-end Analysis Strategy?
- It is a strategy to search for problem space
- It’s goal is to reduce the difference between the Initial & Goal states which is achieved via Subgoals
What are Subgoals?
- They are intermediate states that are closer to the goal (steps)
- SOMETIMES it may appear to increase the distance to the goal state but in the long-run can actually be the shortest path
- It is also used in the Means-end Analysis Stategy
Why is the Tower of Hanoi Problem important?
-It illustrates Means-end analysis w/ its setting of subgoals which can applied to real-life
What did Newell & Simon contribute to their approach to problem solving?
- The ways provided to specify the possible pathways from the inital to goal states
- They also demonstrated how people solve some problems in a stepwise manner using subgoals
What is the Mutilated Checkerboard Problem?
- A checker board has 64 squares which can be completely covered with 32 dominoes bc each side of the domino covers 1 square
- 2 squares from opposite corners from the checker board are removed Is it possible to cover the remaining 62 squares w/ 31 dominos
What is the key to solving the Mutiliated Checkerboard Problem?
- It is understanding the principle that each domino covers 2 squares & that these squares must be different colors
- SO removing 2 square of the SAME color would make it impossible to solve the problem
What did Kaplan & Simon hypothesized about their experiment over their own versions of the Mutilated Checkerboard Problem?
-They hypothesized that certain versions of the mutilated checkerboard problem would make it easier for participants to solve & thus understand the key principle of how to solve it
What variations that Kaplan & Simon implement in their Mutiliated Checkerboard problem?
- They used 4 different checkerboards
- Blank, Color (alternating pink & black squares, The words bread & butter on it, and The words pink & black on it
What was the conclusion from Kaplan & Simon’s variation of the Mutilated Checkerboard problem?
- The participants who were presented boards that emphasized the difference between adjoining squares found the problem easier to solve= Bread & Butter condition was the easiest bc they are different but associated
- The blank one was the hardest
- Both the checkered & the ones with the Pink & Black alternating fell in between the b&b and the blank one
- SO it shows that solving a problem becomes easier when the info is provided to help people come the to correct representation of a problem
What is the Think-Aloud Protocol?
- It was introduced by Simon
- Technique where participants had to say outloud what they were thinking while solving a problem
- Its goal is to determine what info the person is attending to while solving a problem
What does the Think-Aloud Protocol reveal?
-It reveals a shift in how a person percieves elements of a problem
What is Analogical Transfer?
-It is the processing of noticing connections between similar problems and applying the solution for one problem to other problems
(realizing the connection between the checkerboard & the russian arranged marriages & using the same solution)
What is an Analogy?
- A useful tactic for problem-solving
- Consists of asking yourself if the problem that you solved previously is similar to the new problem & how you can apply the same methods
What is Anagolical Problem Solving?
-Using the solution to a similar problem to guide solution of a new problem
What is Target Problem?
-The problem that the participant is trying to solve
What is Source Problem?
-It is another problem that shares some similarities w/ the target problem= illustrates a way to solve the target problem
What is duncker’s Radiation Problem?
- A patient is going to die bc they have a tumor in their stomach that cannot be removed w/ operation
- BUT there is a ray that at high intensity will kill the tumor but also the healthy tissue or at low intensity that will have no effect on tumor & healthy tissue