Cognitive Psychology - Problem Solving & Creativity

Question 1

an obstacle between a present state and a goal and it is not immediately obvious how to get around the obstacle

Answer 1

problem

Question 2

Problem solving, for the ________, was about (1) how people represent a problem in their mind and (2) how solving a problem involves a reorganization or restructuring of this representation.

Answer 2

Gestalt

Question 2

the process of changing a problems representation

Answer 2

restructuring

Question 2

a problem, as defined by psychologists is a situation in which you need to accomplish a _________ and the _________ is not immediately obvious

Answer 2

• goal
• solution

Question 2

any sudden comprehension, realization, or problem solution that involves a reorganization of a person’s mental representation of a stimulus, situation, or event to yield an interpretation that was not initially obvious

Answer 2

insight

Question 3

how a problem is represented in the mind depends on how the problem is _________

Answer 3

presented

Question 3

according to Gestalt, solving the solution is obtained first by _________ the problem and then _________ it in different ways

Answer 3

• perceiving
• representing

Question 3

each ways about going about solving a problem involves a different way of _________ it in the mind

Answer 3

representing

Question 3

‘reorganisation of a person’s mental representations’ in the definition of insight, corresponds to what according to Gestalts approach

Answer 3

restructuring

Question 4

________ in the definition of insight corresponds to the Gestalt emphasis on suddenly realizing the problem’s solution

Answer 4

sudden comprehension

Question 5

Metcalf and Wiebe designed an experiment to distinguish between ______ problems and _______ problems

Answer 5

• insight
• noninsight

Question 5

For noninsight problems, Metcalfe and Wiebe used algebra problems which are also called ______ problems

Answer 5

analytically based

Question 5

Metcalf and Wiebe demonstrated that solutions for problems that have been called insight problems _______

Answer 5

occur suddenly

Question 6

people’s tendency to focus on a specific characteristic of the problem that keeps them from arriving at a solution.

Answer 6

fixation

Question 6

problems that are solved by a process of systematic analysis, often using techniques based on past experience.

Answer 6

analytically based problems

Question 6

an effect that occurs when the idea a person has about an objects function inhibits the persons ability to use the object for different functions

Answer 6

functional fixedness

Question 7

To solve this problem, participants needed to tie the pliers to one of the strings to create a pendulum, which could then be swung to within the person’s reach.

Answer 7

two string problem

Question 7

The solution to this problem occurs when the person realizes that the matchbox can be used as a support rather than as a container

Answer 7

candle problem

Question 7

a preconceived notion about how to approach a problem, which is determined by a person’s experience of what has worked in the past

Answer 7

mental set

Question 7

A problem, first described by Luchins, that illustrates how mental set can influence the strategies that people use to solve a problem

Answer 7

water jug problem

Question 8

Newell and Simon (1972) saw problems in terms of an _______ state—conditions at the beginning of the problem—and a ______ state—the solution of the problem.

Answer 8

• initial state
• goal state

Question 8

Newell and Simon also introduced the idea of _______—actions that take the problem from one state to another and are goverend by rules

Answer 8

operators

Question 8

Conditions after each step is made toward solving a problem

Answer 8

intermediate state

Question 9

All possible states that could occur when solving a problem

Answer 9

problem space

Question 10

A way of solving a problem in which the goal is to reduce the distance between the initial and goal state

Answer 10

means end analysis

Question 11

Small goals that help create intermediate states that are closer to the goal. Occasionally, may appear to increase the distance to the goal state, but in the long run can result in the shortest path to the goal.

Answer 11

subgoals

Question 11

from the Tower of Hanoi, what is this an example of ? Small goals that help create intermediate states that are closer to the goal. Occasionally, a subgoal may appear to increase the distance to the goal state, but in the long run can result in the shortest path to the goal.

Answer 11

subgoals

Question 11

from the Tower of Hanoi, what is this an example of ? Rule: A larger disc can’t be placed on a smaller one.

Answer 11

operators

Question 12

from the Tower of Hanoi, what is this an example of ? Establish subgoals, each of which moves the solution closer to the goal state.

Answer 12

means end analysis

Question 12

from the Tower of Hanoi, what is this an example of ? Subgoal 4: To free up the medium-sized disc, you need to move the small disc from the middle peg back to the peg on the left

Answer 12

subgoals

Question 13

According to Newell and Simon, the person has to search the problem space to find a solution, and they proposed that one way to direct the search is to use a strategy called ________

Answer 13

means end analysis

Question 14

Our overall goal in applying _________ to the Tower of Hanoi problem is to reduce the size of the difference between initial and goal states.

Answer 14

means end analysis

Question 14

The primary goal of means–end analysis is to reduce the difference between the initial and goal states. This is achieved by creating _________—intermediate states that are closer to the goal.

Answer 14

subgoals

Question 14

procedure where participants are asked to say out loud what they are thinking while solving a problem. They are instructed not to describe what they are doing, but to verbalize new thoughts as they occur.

Answer 14

think aloud protocol

Question 14

One goal of a think-aloud protocol is to determine what information the person is ______ while solving a problem.

Answer 14

attending to

Question 15

using the solution to a similar problem to guide solution of a new problem often using techniques based on past experiences

Answer 15

analogical problem solving

Question 16

making a comparison in order to show similarity between two different things

Answer 16

analogy

Question 16

Transferring experience in solving one problem to the solution of another, similar problem

Answer 16

analytical transfer

Question 16

Two key terms that are used in research on analogical transfer

Answer 16

- target problem - source problem

Question 17

which is the problem the participant is trying to solve in analogical transfer

Answer 17

target problem

Question 18

another problem that shares some similarities with the target problem and that illustrates a way to solve the target problem.

Answer 18

source problem

Question 18

Gick and Holyoak to propose that the process of analogical problem solving involves what three steps?

Answer 18

- noticing - mapping - applying

Question 18

A problem posed by Duncker that involves finding a way to destroy a tumor by radiation without damaging other organs in the body. This problem has been widely used to study the role of analogy in problem solving.

Answer 18

radiation problem

Question 18

For the mutilated checkerboard problem, the checkerboard problem is the ______ problem, and the Russian marriage problem is the ______ problem.

Answer 18

- target - source

Question 18

Gick and Holyoak propose that the ______ step is the most difficult of the three steps in analogical problem solving

Answer 18

noticing

Question 19

one way to help people notice similarities is through a training procedure called__________

Answer 19

analogical encoding

Question 20

the process by which two problems are compared and similarities between them are determined

Answer 20

analogical encoding

Question 21

a negotiating strategy in which one person says to an-other, “I’ll give you A, if you’ll give me B.”

Answer 21

trade off strategy

Question 22

a negotiating strategy in which a person gets what he or she wants if something else happens.

Answer 22

contingency strategy

Question 23

While it is difficult to apply analogies in laboratory research, people routinely use analogies in real-world settings

Answer 23

analogical paradox

Question 23

Observing people to determine how they solve problems in real-world situations. This technique has been used to study the use of analogy in a number of different settings, including laboratory meetings of a university research group and design brainstorming sessions in an industrial research and development department.

Answer 23

in vivo problem solving

Question 23

research involves observing people to determine how they solve problems in real-world situations

Answer 23

in vivo problem solving

Question 24

people who, by devoting a large amount of time to learning about a field and practicing and applying that learning, have become acknowledged as being extremely knowledgeable or skilled in that particular field

Answer 24

experts

Question 24

it has been suggested that being an expert may be a disadvantage when confronting a problem that requires _________ thinking—a problem whose solution may involve rejecting the usual procedures in favor of other procedures that might not normally be used

Answer 24

flexible

Question 25

thinking that is open minded involving a large number of potential solutions

Answer 25

divergent thinking

Question 25

Kaufman notes that divergent thinking is the cornerstone of creativity and in addition to be original, a creative response to a problem must be ______

Answer 25

useful

Question 25

stage one of the problem solving process proposed by Basadur is the problem generation stage, which includes what?

Answer 25

- problem findings - fact finding

Question 25

stage two of the problem solving process proposed by Basadur is what?

Answer 25

problem formulation

Question 25

stage three of the problem solving process proposed by Basadur is the _____ stage

Answer 25

problem solving

Question 25

stage four of the problem solving process proposed by Basadur is what?

Answer 25

solution implementaion

Question 26

some research has focused on two steps in this process, generating ideas and evaluating the idea, where generating ideas corresponds to ________ and evaluating ideas corresponds to ________

Answer 26

- problem finding - evaluation and selection

Question 26

The purpose of this technique is to en-courage people to freely express ideas that might be use-ful in solving a particular problem

Answer 26

group brainstorming

Question 26

One method of individual idea generation that does work has been proposed by Ronald Finke, who developed a technique called _______ to train people to think creatively

Answer 26

creative cognition

Question 27

ideas that precede the creation of a finished creative product, where they need to be developed further before becoming useful inventions

Answer 27

preinventive forms

Question 28

the solution is that its permissible to cross the square boundary

Answer 28

non dot problem

Question 29

the reason we do not consider the possibility of extending the lines outside the square in the nine dot problem has to do with our tendency to perceive individual elements as _______

Answer 29

grouped together

Question 30

a procedure for stimulating the brain in which two electrodes are placed on a person's head. These electrodes are connected to a battery-powered device that delivers direct current. One of the electrodes is the cathodal electrode, which is neg-atively charged and decreases the excitability of neurons under the electrode. The other is the anodal electrode, which is positively charged and increases the excitability of neurons under the electrode.

Answer 30

transcranial direct current stimulation

Question 31

deactivating the left anterior temporal lobe helped the patients to what?

Answer 31

think outside the box

Question 32

the left anterior ______ lobe is associated with grouping lower level information into meaningful patterns

Answer 32

temporal lobe

Question 33

a task in which three words are presented, such as pine, crab, and sauce, and the task is to determine one word that, when combined with each of these words, forms a new word or a phrase (pineapple, crabapple, and applesauce, in this example). This type of problem can be solved both by insight or analytically

Answer 33

compound remote associate problem

Question 33

use of EEG and a compound remote associate problem found that EEG activity increased in the frontal lobe just before the ________ solutions and increased in the occipital lobe just before the ______ solutions

Answer 33

- insight - noninsight

Question 34

DMN activity _______ when a person is involved in a specific task and ________ when attention isn’t focused on a task.

Answer 34

- decreases - increases

Question 35

activity in the DMN is associated with ______, and this is often associated with a decrease in performance on tasks that require focused attention like reading or solving math problems

Answer 35

- mind wandering

Question 36

The phenomenon of getting ideas after taking a “time-out” from working on a problem

Answer 36

incubation

Question 37

A task used to assess creativity, in which the person’s task is to think unusual uses for an object

Answer 37

alternative uses task

Question 38

the result of the alternative uses task shows that higher originality is associated with higher activity in structures in the ______

Answer 38

DMN

Question 39

network involved in directing attention as a person is carrying out tasks

Answer 39

executive control network

Question 40

the DMN and ECN are connected during both the generation and evaluation stages of the creative process.

Answer 40

functionally

Question 41

thoughts, or insights, arriving from unconscious information-processing systems. These often occur unexpectedly, although they are often preceded by unconscious mental activity.

Answer 41

intuition

Question 42

The drive for cognitive exploration of one’s inner mind and the outer world

Answer 42

openness to experience

Question 43

The act of choosing to disengage from external tasks in order to pursue an internal stream of thought that might have positive outcomes is called

Answer 43

volitional daydreaming

Question 44

“the simple process of actively noticing new things” and “paying attention to the present moment”

Answer 44

mindfulness

Question 45

focus on one thing, like the in and out of your breath, and when your mind wanders, as it inevitability will, to bring your attention back to your breath

Answer 45

focused attention meditation

Question 46

paying attention to whatever comes into the mind, and to follow this thought until something else comes along, does not decrease mind wandering

Answer 46

open monitoring meditation

Question 46

benefits of this characteristic is enhanced daydreaming, enhanced analytical thinking that required focused attention and helps avoid distractions

Answer 46

solitude

Question 47

Kaufman and Gregoire state that “________ isn’t just about avoiding distractions; it’s about giving the mind the space it needs to reflect, make new connections and find meaning.”

Answer 47

solitude

Question 48

_______ meditation causes greater activation of the DMN than FA meditation

Answer 48

open monitoring

Question 49

functional fixedness would be lowest for a(n): a) novel object b) familiar object c) frequently used object d) object with a specific function

Answer 49

a) novel object

Question 50

which term best describes the process of brainstorming? a) compound b) divergent c) preinventive d) mindful

Answer 50

b) divergent

Question 51

expertise can be divided into categories, what are they?

Answer 51

- routine - adaptive

Question 52

an expert who uses acquired knowledge to solve familiar problems efficiently

Answer 52

routine

Question 53

an expert who uses acquired knowledge to develop strategies for dealing with novel problems

Answer 53

adaptive

Question 54

Routine expertise is of a lower level order of thinking than adaptive expertise, as the situation is generally _______ and can be seen as a kind of competence.

Answer 54

- known

Question 55

Involves observing people to determine how they solve problems in real-world situations (Dunbar, 2002). This method has been used to study the use of analogy in a number of different settings, including laboratory meet-ings of a university research group and brainstorming sessions in which the goal was to develop a new product. Discussions recorded during these meetings have been analyzed for statements indicating that analogy is being used to help solve a problem.

Answer 55

in vivo problem solving

Question 56

One method of individual idea generation that does work has been proposed by Ronald Finke, who developed a technique called _______ to train people to think creatively. A) creative problem solving B) creative cognition C) preinventive forms D) cognitive creativity

Answer 56

B