PSYC 2501 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Problem Solving, Pliers, Temporal Lobe
26 Apr 2018
School
Department
Course
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Problem solving & decision making
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
12:34 PM
• Techniques for problem solving
o Problem occurs when there is an obstacle between a present state and a goal and it
is not immediately obvious how to get around the obstacle
o Algorithm
• Step by step logical rule or procedure that guarantees a solution
• Example: try every letter in every possible combination until one works, but
there are over 900,000 possible combinations
• Always work but are very slow
o Heuristics
• Rule of thumb that doesn't necessarily guarantee a correct solution, but gets
you there faster
• Heuristics don't always work but they are fast and efficient
o Insight
• A sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem
• Problem solving
o Gestalt psychologists thought that success in problem solving was influenced by how
one represents the problem in the mind
o They though that we can solve problems by representing them in a different way or
restructuring them in our minds
• Geometry problem
▪ Can be solved by restructuring, thinking of the shape as a rectangle
instead of a triangle
• Thought restructuring of a problem leads to insight
▪ Sudden discovery of a problem's solution
▪ Debate over whether insight is real
o Metcalfe & Wiebe hypothesized that there is a basic difference in how people feel
they are progressing with insight vs non-insight problems
• Participants should not be good at predicting when they are about to solve an
insight problem but should be with non-insight problems
• Gave participants two types of problems: insight and non-insight
• Every 15 seconds, rate how close they are to solving this problem '
• Found there is a different with insight problems
▪ The solution occurs suddenly without being aware of the steps involved
in solving it
• fMRI studies have shown greater right hemisphere activation with solving an
insight problem
o Obstacles to problem solving
• Gestaltists wanted to learn about processes involving problem solving by
studying obstacles to problem solving
• One of the major obstacles according to gestaltists is fixation
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