problem solving/ decision making Flashcards
what is problem solving and what does it involve?
overcoming an obstacle to reach a goal.
- understand the problem (components)
- generate possible solutions
- test solutions
- evaluate results
general strategies for problem solving…
- trial and error
- algorithm
- heuristics - means-end analysis
what is a heuristic?
a strategy that doesn’t guarantee a solution but they often work and save time… cognitive shortcut
algorithms
use knowledge of English to derive solutions (heuristics/ rule of thumb) - don’t try all possible solutions
availability heuristic:
probability estimates influenced by how easy it is to retrieve information
(people’s estimates of danger are influenced by past events/ friends and family experiences are easy to retrieve)
means-ends analysis for problem solving
towers of hanoi
goals broken into subgoals, working step by step to get closer to goal
Hill-climbing - to solve problems
chicken, fox, grain
change the present state of the problem so you are one step closer to a solution
creative problem solving
- divergent thinking
- analogy
Dunker’s Radiation Problem
Doctor needs to destroy a tumor, that can be destroyed using a ray but the ray will also destroy healthy tissue. At low levels the ray will not destroy healthy tissue, but it is not strong enough to destroy tumor.
Teaching of this problem allowed people to form analogy
Obstacles to Problem Solving
- mental sets: habits/ assumptions (lunchins jar prob)
- functional fixedness: cognitive bias where people only think to use an object the way it is traditionally used (candle problem)
Overcoming Obstacles…
- incubation/ taking a break
- practice divergent thinking
successful problem solving…
- analogies, look out for functional fixedness/ mental sets
