PSYCH207 Lecture Notes - Problem Solving, White Matter, Groot
5 May 2018
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Chapter 10: Thinking & Problem Solving
Thinking
➢ Going beyond the information given (Bruner)
➢ Complex and high-level skill level that fills up gaps in the evidence (Bartlett)
➢ Process of searching through a problem space (Newell & Simon)
➢ What we do when we are in doubt about how to act, what to believe, or what to desire (Baron)
➢ Can be divided into focused thinking (goal based, problem solving) and unfocused thinking
(daydreaming, unintentional, creative thinking)
Types of Problem
➢ Well Defined thinking
• Have a beginning and an end
• Rule or guidelines
• Have a clear goal
➢ Ill defined
• Not having a clear description
• No steps or guidelines
• No goals or starting information
How psychologists study this: Techniques
➢ Generate and Test
• Generate a number of solutions and then test the solutions
• Useful if there is a limited number of possibilities
• Problematic if: there are too many possibilities, no guidance over generation, can’t keep track of
possibilities tested
➢ Means-Ends
• Problems Space
o Initial state: conditions at the beginning of the problem
o Goals state: condition at the end of the problem
o Intermediate states: the various conditions that exist along pathways between the initial and
the goal state
o Operators: permissible moves that can be made towards the problem’s solutions
• Reduce the difference between initial state and goal state
• Involves generating a goal and then sub-goals comparing the goal with the starting point,
thinking of possible ways of overcoming the difference and choosing the best one
• Any sequence of moves beginning at the initial state and ending at the final goal state
constitutes a solution path (e.g. the way a GPS works. Starting point destination)
➢ Working Backwards
• User analyzes goal to determine important technique for solving many problems
• Involves creating sub-goals and reducing differences between the current state and the goal state
(like means-ends analysis)
• Sub-goals are created working backwards from the goal state “I didn’t do great on the last
test. How can I get a ‘A’ on the next test?”
• E.g. Tower of Hanoi must determine moves to move discs one at a time to goal state
without placing larger on top and must transfer to last peg. Can be done by working backwards
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➢ Back Tracking
• Problem solving often involves making “working assumptions”
• In order to correct mistakes in problem solving, you need to: remember your assumptions, assess
which assumptions failed, and correct the assumption
➢ Reasoning by Analogy
• Find comparisons between two situations and apply the solution from one situation to the other
• Dick & Holyoak
presented participants with the tumor problem
But before each person read the story of the general, some were told the story of the General
had a hint relevant to the tumor problem and others were not
results: 75% of the individuals told the story of the General had a hint solved the problem
correctly. Only 30% of the individuals not told noticed the analogy
• Cross-domain analogy
• Within-domain analogy
• Analogies – Abstract thought and the Brain
I. The heart (William Harvey)
II. The atom (Niels Bohr)
III. Theory of evolution (Charles Darwin)
IV. Attention
Blocks in Problem Solving
➢ Solution does not require a mathematical solution
➢ This involved insight
➢ Mental set
• tendency to adopt a certain framework, strategy, or procedure based on your initial impression
• is analogous to perceptual set (the tendency to perceive an object or pattern in a certain way
on the basis of your immediate perceptual experience)
• Solution is obtained by first perceiving the object and then representing it in a different way
• Mental set often causes people to make certain unwarranted assumptions without being made
aware of them
• E.g. string problem – tie strings together that are spaced so far apart that a person cannot hold
on to them both at the same time. Solution: use a screwdriver as a weight to make one of
the strings into a pendulum
➢ Functional Fixedness
• An instance of mental set, in that a person subject to functional fixedness has apparently
adopted a rigid mental set toward an object
➢ Lack of Problem Specific Knowledge or Expertise (incomplete problem representations and Funcitonal
fixedness)
• Insight appears to play a vital role in what is commonly called creative appropriate novelty –
originality that suits some purpose)
• De Groot Study
o Examined chess masters and novice
o Both considered the same number of possible moves, but masters somehow chose the best
move more easily
➢ Chase & Simon Study
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• Experts able to extract more information from brief exposure
• Experts can recall more items from a 5 second exposure of a chessboard, but only when
the pieces are configured to depict a possible chess game
➢ Everyday Mechanisms
• Perkins Study
o Came up with examples of cognitive processes that underlie normal everyday functioning
as well as creative invention
o Directed remembering – ability to channel your memory in order to make conscious some
past experience or knowledge that meets various constraints
o Noticing – revising drafts and noticing problems (Double-checking)
o Contrary recognition – ability to recognize objects not for that they are but as something
else
➢ Why? Reason #1: More domain specific categorization skills (drawn from exemplars). Reason #2:
Represent problems at a deeper more conceptual level
Summary:
(1) There are several distinctions among types of problems (well-defined and ill-defined ones) and among
types of thinking (for example, focused versus unfocused). Psychologists typically focus on focused thinking
with well-defined problems.
(2) We discussed 5 different general problem-solving strategies (generate-and-test, means–ends analysis,
working backward, backtracking, and reasoning by analogy) that people use in a wide variety of situations.
Reasoning by analogy is associated with the recruitment of resources localized in the frontopolar cortex.
(3) There are at least 3 different blocks to problem solving (mental set, functional fixedness, and incorrect
or incomplete problem representations). These blocks often hinder creative thinking.
Chapter 11: Decision Making
➢ We often make assumptions and take shortcuts when making decisions, but that frees up our
cognitive mind helps us make efficient decisions most of the time
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Complex and high-level skill level that fills up gaps in the evidence (bartlett) Process of searching through a problem space (newell & simon) What we do when we are in doubt about how to act, what to believe, or what to desire (baron) Can be divided into focused thinking (goal based, problem solving) and unfocused thinking (daydreaming, unintentional, creative thinking) Well defined thinking: have a beginning and an end, rule or guidelines, have a clear goal. Ill defined: not having a clear description, no steps or guidelines, no goals or starting information. Initial state: conditions at the beginning of the problem: goals state: condition at the end of the problem. Intermediate states: the various conditions that exist along pathways between the initial and the goal state: operators: permissible moves that can be made towards the problem"s solutions, reduce the difference between initial state and goal state. Working backwards: user analyzes goal to determine important technique for solving many problems.
