Metcalfe and Wiebe gave participants problems to solve and asked the to make “warmth” judgments every 15 sec. to indicate how close they felt they were to a solution. The purpose of the experiment was to;
show how people progress through the problem space as they solve a problem.
demonstrate a difference between how people solve insight and non-insight problems.
show that some problems are easier to solve than others.
measure the time-course of solving well defined vs. ill defined problems.
Glick and Holyoak proposed that analogical problem solving involves following three steps;
restructuring, simulating, surfacing.
restructuring, searching, and simulating.
surfacing, structuring, and generalizing.
noticing, mapping, and applying.
Amber lives between two parallel streets that both connect to a freeway. Usually she takes the street to the south to work each morning, but it’s now closed for repairs, but is now taking the street to the north instead. Once the closed street is reopened, if she continues taking the street to the north, even though it’s a little longer, it would be an example of;
divergent thinking.
ill-formed source problem.
a mental set
single dissociation
A heuristic is;
a quick ‘rule of thumb’ to make decisions quickly and efficiently, sometimes at the cost of accuracy.
an oversimplified generalization about a group or class of people that often focuses on the negative.
when a correlation appears to exist between two events when none is present.
an exhaustive search through all possible decisions to arrive at the best possible decision.
Considering the fortress and the radiation problems together, the fortress problem represent the _____ problem.
exemplar
source
target
prototype
Newell and Simon called the conditions at the beginning of the problem, the;
source story.
intermediate state.
initial state.
goal state.
A researcher records a brainstorming session in an industrial research and development department rather than in an artificial laboratory setting. Later, analyzing the discussions, she identifies particular problem solving techniques. This an example of _____ research.
environmental functional fixedness
in-vivo problem solving
situationally produced mental set
think-aloud protocol
Kaplan and Simon’s experiment presented different versions of the mutilated checkerboard problem. The main purpose of their experiment was to demonstrate that;
people arrive at the solution to an insight problem suddenly, but are more methodical when working on a non-insight problem.
the way the problem is represented can influence the ease of solving.
a person’s mental set can hinder their finding a solution to a problem.
people often have to backtrack in the problem space to arrive at the correct answer.
Which of the following statements about the differences between novices and experts when solving a problem is NOT true?
Experts spend more time analyzing problems than novices.
Being an expert in one field can transfer to better problem solving in another field.
Experts possess more knowledge than novices
Experts often organize problems differently than novices, based on principles.
Jack is a psychology grad student preparing for his dissertation. Faced with an extensive list of research articles to consider, he excludes many from consideration because they don’t consider findings he and his adviser published together in previous papers, and as such, aren’t up to date on the most current theories on the topic; those of Jack and his adviser. This exclusion of info is an example of the;
the conjunction rule
representativeness heuristic
hindsight bias
myside bias
Functional fixedness would be LOWEST for a(n);
object with a specific function.
familiar object.
novel object
frequently used object.
Newell and Simon’s early work on problem solving was based on the idea that it is a processing involving;
algorithms.
heuristics.
insight.
search.
_____ identified people’s tendency to focus on a specific characteristic of a problem that keeps them from arriving at a solution as a major obstacle to successful problem solving.
The analogical problem solving approach.
Information processing psychologists
Gestalt psychologists
Psychophysicists
Decisions based on _____ are usually going to be correct, but there’s always the chance they could be mistaken.
representative observations
algorithmic reasoning
inductive reasoning
heuristic reasoning
The Gestalt psychologists consider problem solving a process that involves;
sensory operators.
continuity and form.
multiple goal states.
reorganization or restructuring.
In the two-string problem, tying the pliers to one of the strings best represents a(n) _____ state.
functional fixedness
intermediate
initial
goal
Ali works for Citrus Squeeze, a juice company. Sales of their calcium enhanced OJ were poor, and the product was cancelled. Her factory still had three cases of the produce, and she was told she could have them. With the cartons, she made several bird feeders and seedling planters, and a fort for her four year old son. This use of the cartons represents;
hierarchical organization
convergent thinking.
The best description of think aloud protocols is that they are used to determine;
how a person’s expertise increases his or her likelihood of solving a problem, relative to a beginner.
what info a person is attending to while solving a problem.
which people can be considered more creative in their problem solving.
how to develop computer programs tha tbest mimic human problem solving
Janet is alone in a room that contains a chair and a shelf with a book resting on top. She attempts to retrieve the book, but the shelf is a foot above her reach. Psychologists would NOT classify this scenario as a problem because;
the solution is immediately obvious.
the initial state is not clearly defined.
there is an obstacle between the present state and goal state.
the goal state is not clearly defined.
The _____ is assuming something belongs in a particular group because it shares features with that group, but is actually a member of a different group.
illusory correlation
stereotype
availability heuristic
The ability to shift experience from one problem solving situation to a similar problem is known as;
analogical transfer.
analogical encoding.
in-vivo problem solving.
The _____ states that the probability of two events occuring together cannot be higher than the probability of either even occurring alone.
law of large numbers
rule of averages
conjunction rule
_____ is the behavioral tendency to avoid _____.
Calculated risk : unnecessary risks
Risk aversion : calculated risks
Risk aversion : unnecessary risks
Unnecessary risk : risk aversion
Actions that take the problem from one state to another are called;
sub-goals.
intermediate states.
mental sets.
operators.
In analogical problem solving, the _____ problem is the one the participant is trying to solve, and the _____ problem, which has been solved in the past, is used as a guide for reaching a solution.
exemplar : source
target : source
prototype : target
source : target
Insight refers to;
prior learning facilitating problem solving
prior learning hindering problem solving.
the tendency to respond in a certain manner based on past experience
the sudden realization of a problem’s solution.
_____ refers to the idea that the participants in a sample will accurately portray the characteristics of the population the sample is drawn from.
Inductive reasoning
Number of observations
Representativeness of observations
Quality of evidence
The base rate is;
the relative frequency at which an event/person occurs in the population
that as the size of the sample increases, it will become steadily more representative of the population.
mistakenly assuming the cause of an event because of frequency of exposure to that event, rather than the actual frequency of all instances of that event.
that the probability of two events occurring together cannot be higher than the probability of either event occurring alone.
Which problem provides an example of how functional fixedness can hinger solution of a problem?
The radiation problem.
Mutilated checkerboard.
Tower of Hanoi.
Two-string.
The water-jug problem demonstrates that one consequence of having a procedure that does provide a solution to a problem is that, if well learned, it may prevent us from;
seeing more efficient solutions.
being able to solve other problems.
discriminating between well and ill-defined problems.
understanding why the procedure is successful.
The _____ is mistakenly assuming the cause of an event because of frequency of exposure to the event, rather than the actual frequency of all instances of that event.
Experts categorize problems based on;
event-specific knowledge.
how similar the objects in the problem are.
surface and deep structures
general principles the problems share.
The Gestaltist’s “circle problem” in which the task is to determine the length of a line inside a circle, was proposed to illustrate;
how analogies can be used to solve problems.
means-end analysis.
representation and restructuring.
the problem space.
_____ is the idea that people will always seek to maximize their personal gain whenever making a decision.
Selfishness
Expected utility theory
Statistical illiteracy
Utilitarianism
The solution to the “candle problem” involves realizing that the;
candle can be oriented horizontally or diagonally.
candle can be cut in half.
match box can be used as a shelf.
match box can be used as a container for tacks.
____ refers to the idea that more evidence (data, or how many examples can be cited) increases the support for a conclusion.
Deductive reasoning
Confirmation bias is;
the relative frequency at which an event occurs in the population.
where we favor info confirming our position, and discount evidence contradicting it.
mistakenly assuming the cause of an event because of frequency of exposure to that event, rather than the frequency of all instances of that event.
the probability of two events occurring together cannot be greater than the probability of either event occurring alone.
An algorithm is;
A quick ‘rule of thumb’ to make decisions quickly and efficiently, sometimes at the cost of accuracy.
The “fortress problem” involves a castle and marching soldiers, while the “radiation problem” involves a tumor and X-rays. Therefore, the two problems have very different;
surface features.
structural features.
The _____ states that as the size of the sample increases, it will become steadily more representative of the population it’s drawn from.
conjuction rule
