PSY 3120 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: General Problem Solver, Functional Fixedness, Pliers

• School: Vanderbilt University
• Department: Psychology (A&S)
• Course: PSY 3120
• Professor: Woodman Geoffrey

Document Summary

Prefrontal cortex advancement in higher cognitive functions: language, imagery, and memory. Most expansion in organization of behavior: dorsal (top), anterior (front), and right-hemisphere. A comparative perspective on problem solving: kohler: studied chimpanzee problem solving (gestalt psychologist) a. i. Sultan suddenly realized that the two shorter sticks could be connected to get the bananas: three essential features that qualify this episode as an instance of problem solving b. i. Goal directedness: behavior is clearly organized toward a goal (food) b. ii. Subgoal decomposition: goals set in charge of achieving the larger goal; decompose original b. iii. Operator application: the use of operators (particular action that will transform the problem state into another problem state solution = sequence of operators) achieve his goal to. Problem solving is goal-directed behavior that often involves setting subgoals to enable the application of operators. The problem-solving process: problem space and search: problem space: representation of the various sequences of operators that lead to various states of prob. a. i.