thinking 1

Question 1

what is a problem?

Answer 1

when a living organism has a goal, but doesn’t know how to reach this goal

Question 2

what are the three elements of a problem?

Answer 2

starting state
goal state
set of processes (operators), which can transform one state to another

Question 3

what are the two historical approaches to problem solving?

Answer 3

behaviourist
gestalt

Question 4

what is the behaviourist approach to problem solving?

Answer 4

looks at observable behaviour by stimulus response association
problem solving occurs through trial and error

Question 5

what is the gestalt approach to problem solving?

Answer 5

problem solving is more than reproducing a learned response
occurs in a moment of insight

Question 6

what did Thorndike find in the behaviourist approach?

Answer 6

placed cats in a puzzle box with a clasp to hold the door shut
need to perform a sequence of actions to exit
found that the cats learnt by trial and error- although the initial escape is by chance, future efforts improve

Question 7

what did Kohler find in the Gestalt approach?

Answer 7

was a psychologist trapped on Tenerife in WW1
found a colony of chimps and studied their problem solving behaviour
one problem= given two sticks which were too short to reach bananas outside their cage
in a sudden moment of insight, realised these had to be put together to reach the banana

Question 8

who proposed the four stages of creative thinking?

Answer 8

Wallas

Question 9

what are the four stages of creative thinking?

Answer 9

preparation
incubation
illumination
verification

Question 10

what is preparation in problem solving?

Answer 10

problem is formulated and initial attempts are made to solve the problem

Question 11

what is incubation in problem solving?

Answer 11

the problem is set aside and no conscious work is done on it

Question 12

what is illumination?

Answer 12

suddent inspiration provides a new insight into how a problem can be solved

Question 13

what is verification?

Answer 13

conscious work on the problem develops and tests the inspiration to provide a full solution to the problem

Question 14

who came up with the cheap necklace problem?

Answer 14

Silveira

Question 15

what happens in the cheap necklace problem?

Answer 15

given four separate pieces of chain that are each 3 links in length
costs £2 to open a link and £3 to close a link
all the links are closed at the start of the problem
goal is to join all 12 links of the chain into a single circle at cost no more than £15

Question 16

what were the results of the cheap necklace problem?

Answer 16

control group= worked on problem for half an hour= 55% solved the problem
group 1= worked for half an hour, interrupted by a half hour break performing other activities= 64% solved the problem
group 2= worked for half an hour, interrupted by a 4 hour break= 85% solved the problem

Question 17

who investigated incubation?

Answer 17

Murray and Denny

Question 18

when is incubation necessary?

Answer 18

divided participants into high and low ability groups based on their performance on a ‘use of objects’ test
subjects given 20 mins to solve a complex practical problem
half subjects had a 5 min break in the middle of the task, and the other half didn’t
incubation was only useful for difficult tasks

Question 19

what is functional fixedness?

Answer 19

people fixate on a property/function of an object that can be used to solve the problem- can’t think about it in a different way

Question 20

what is mental set?

Answer 20

learn a strategy for solving a problem which has produced success in the pass, but continue to use even when inappropriate

Question 21

who investigated functional fixedness?

Answer 21

Duncker

Question 22

what happened in Duncker’s study for functional fixedness?

Answer 22

told to support a candle on the wall so it doesn’t drip onto the table below

partipants often tried to nail the candle to the wall or glue the candle with wax

became easier if the drawing pins were emptied out of the box first- can reimagine it as a candle holder

Question 23

what is the Einstellung problem?

Answer 23

mechanisation of thought-people become biased by prior experience to prefer certain approaches, which may block the solution

Question 24

what happened in Luchin’s water jug problem?

Answer 24

problem specifies the capacities of jugs A, B and C, and a final desired quantity
need to work out how to use the jugs to measure the final required quantity
some participants were taught a hard method to solve the problem
there were more efficient ways to solve the problem in some circumstances, that weren’t spotted due to functional fixedness

Question 25

what is the 9 dot problem?

Answer 25

participants told to draw four continuous straight lines to connect 9 dots without taking their pen off the paper
most people cannot solve the problem as they fixate on staying within the square
still not everyone could solve when told to draw outside the box- not always a moment of fixation

Question 26

what is feeling of knowing?

Answer 26

even when we cannot immediately solve a problem, sometimes we feel like we are closer to knowing the answer than other times

Question 27

what is feeling of warmth?

Answer 27

being able to predict how close to a solution you are
less accurate than feeling of knowing
often the case for incremental rather than insight solutions