Problem Solving, Pt. 2 Flashcards
Means-end Strategy
If I was trying to make a budget, and I set up specific financial goals then broke them down into more manageable steps, this is most likely me using which strategy?
Ill-Defined Problems
Situations with no clear path to move from the problem to the goal state
-Few task constraints (these are limitations for how to solve the problem)
-There can be multiple solutions
How to solve ill-defined problems
-Often associated with uncertainty of how to solve them
-We must find strategies (not scripted solutions) that fit with our situations
1. Recombine related memories to form imagined hypothetical solutions
2. Remember past experiences related to a problem
Analogical Problem Solving
-Making comparisons across scenarios
-Applying the solution from a past situation to a current problem
-People don’t usually engage in analogical transfer without a hint and low surface similarity
-E.g. applying bathtub situation to solving crown problem
Target Problem
The problem the person is trying to solve
-E.g. what to cook for a dinner party
-E.g. what is the crown made of
Source Problem
The problem that shares similarity with the target problem
-E.g. how was this resolved in past similar scenarios?
-E.g. in bathtub, water being displaced
Notice a Relationship
There is an analogous relationship between source problem (familiar) and target problem (unfamiliar)
Mapping the Correspondence
What is similar between the target and source problems?
-Requires inference and generalization
Apply the Mapping
Generating a parallel solution for the target problme
Solving the ‘‘Tumor’’ Problem
You are goig to be presented with a word problem that requires some creativity to solve
-You may find that the story about invac hints for solving the tumor problem, so if you can
The Fortress Story
You will now read a story about another problem. You will not be asked to solve this problem because the solution will be given to you
Surface Details
Content of scenarios
-It is easier to use a school-related problem to solve a current school-related problem than a related current relationship-related problem
Structural Similarity
-The essence of the problem solutionis stored
-Generalized relationship between problem and solution
Source and Target Similarity
-Target problem : babysitting your niece, and you need to swaddle a baby, but you don’t know how!
-Surface similarity : source scenario confined to past baby problems
-Structural similarity : source scenario expands to burrito folding scenarios (more creative analogical transfer)
Sleep
…to facilitate analogical transfer
= broader connections
Einstellung Effect
Bias to use familiar methods to solve a problem
-Different types of blocks in problem solving
Rigid Thinking
An anibility to seek out a better method to solve a given problem
-E.g. dinner party –> making lentille soup
someone is allergic at party… still going to make that soup
Functional Fixedness
The inability to see beyond the most common use of a particular object
-‘‘Fixed’’ on the known function of an object
The development of Functional Fixedness
-Children of different ages solved the ‘‘candle’’ problem
-Pre-utilization : experience with the objects
-No fixedness in children without pre-utilization
-Too much experience leads to fixedness and the Einstellung effect
Alternate Uses Task
Link to creativity
-E.g. give some uses for a newspaper
Mental Fixedness : Overusing mental sets
-Responding with previously learned rule sequences even when they are inappropriate or less productive
-The tendency to respond inflexibly to a particular type of problem and not alter your response
-E.g. might be fixaded on a solution that isn’t the most effective in reality
Insight Problem Solving
A productive thinking process of forming new patterns or ways to view a problem
-Restructuring a problem leads to a sudden solution
-The Aha moment or insight
Gestalt Switches
-The experience of having a sudden switch in how you see something
Verbal Insight Problems
To break mental sets, to select the novel semantic information and to form novel, task-related associations
Insight results from Impasse
-Mental impasse, which means your stuck in a solution path
-You need insight to overcome impasse by restructuring the problem
-To go forward, you need to go back to problem and restructure
