week 10- problem solving

Question 1

what is a problem?

Answer 1

-An obstacle between a present state and a goal with no obvious solution

Question 2

what do gestalt psychologists try to discover? what is their stance?

Answer 2

-Issue: how people represent problems in their minds
-if you’re representing it the wrong way, there’s no way you’re gonna solve it

Question 3

what are gestalt psychologists’ two approaches to solving problems? explain each

Answer 3

Insight- having an “ah ha” moment during a problem
Non-insight- solving problems knowing we have some specific rules to follow (ex. Like algebra)

Question 4

what are two obstacles to problem solving

Answer 4

→ Functional fixedness
→ Mental Set

Question 5

what is functional fixedness

Answer 5

usually we think of objects in the way that they were meant to be used, and we don’t think about ways we can change the object to solve our problem

Question 6

what is the candle problem? what concept does it relate to?

Answer 6

you have to figure out how to fix the candle to the wall in a way where when you light it, the wax won’t drip onto the table. You dump out the tac box and use the tacs to fix the box to the wall and light the candle in the box so the candle wax won’t drip on the table.
-relates to functional fixedness
(see image 2)

Question 7

what is mental set

Answer 7

once you get into a mental set of “this is the way i usually do things”, you miss out on more efficient ways to solve problems

Question 8

what us the water jug problem? what concept does this relate to?

Answer 8

you are shown 3 jugs with different volumes of water. They want you to use those 3 jugs to reach a desired volume that they tell you only using those 3 different volume jugs
-relates to mental set

Question 9

what is the information processing approach?

Answer 9

-at point a, you wanna get to point b, but it’s not as simple as that

Question 10

what are the 6 stages of the information processing approach

Answer 10

Initial State- point a (starting point)
Goal State- point b (where you wanna get to)
Operators (Rules)- rules you have to follow going from point a to point b
Intermediate States- there’s things along the way you have to do to accomplish to go to point b
Problem Space- hypothetical construct of when i think about this problem, you think about all these steps together and all its errors
Means-end analysis- what do i need to do to get a little bit closer to this goal? What do I need to do to achieve my end goal?

Question 11

what approach does the tower of hanoi relate to?

Answer 11

information processing approach

Question 12

explain the mutilated checkerboard problem and its results

Answer 12

-if we took a checkerboard and took two corner red pieces away (62 squares left) and we were given dominos, can you cover the checkerboard with all the dominos with none hanging off the end?
-most people say yes, but the answer is actually no because you took away two red pieces, so its not equal anymore (if you took away a black and red then you could)
-once you give people the information that its not equal anymore since two red pieces were taken away, they can answer the question much more efficiently

Question 13

what is an analogical transfer

Answer 13

the target problem is one you’re currently trying to solve and the source problem where you are taking information from to map onto the target problem

Question 14

explain the radiation and fortress study and its results

Answer 14

-when you give people the fortress story before the radiation problem, their solution rate become 30% when before it was 10%, then when you start giving people hints, their solution rate goes up to 75% – showing they used analogical transfer

Question 15

what makes the radiation and fortress study even more easier

Answer 15

when the surface rates of source and target problems overlap (if the fortress and radiation problem were both medical, the solution rates would go up)

Question 16

what is analogical encoding?

Answer 16

when we don’t know how to solve a problem, we start to think: is there anything else we’ve ever done that can help me solve this problem?

Question 17

what is in vivo problem solving

Answer 17

we use analogical encoding often to solve problems in the real world

Question 18

how many hours do you have to devote to something to become an expert

Answer 18

10 000 to 20 000

Question 19

who are better problem solvers than most? why?

Answer 19

experts
-they simply possess more knowledge about their field of interest

Question 20

describe the expert chess study and its results

Answer 20

-Study: chess players’ expertise is limited to their area of expertise. If you flash a picture of a chess board really quickly to masters vs. beginners chess players and ask: where exactly was this piece on the chessboard?, masters players performed way better than beginners when the pieces were in their actual positions, however when the pieces were random, masters and beginners do the same
see image 3

Question 21

what is the curse of knowledge

Answer 21

-sometimes we know so much that it impacts our ability to understand that others may not know as much as we do

Question 22

give an in class example of the curse of knowledge

Answer 22

if someone knocks happy birthday on a table, no one really knows it even though you think everyone would know it. The song is so familiar and everyone knows it, so that’s why you think everyone would be able to guess the song but that’s not true

Question 23

what is divergent thinking?

Answer 23

the ability to think of something that is novel and useful

Question 24

give an example of analogical creativity

Answer 24

velcro came from someone walking through a forest and getting burrs stuck to them

Question 25

what is the best way to do group brainstorming?

Answer 25

the best way to brainstorm is to have people generate ideas on their own and then come together in a group to pool their ideas together

Question 26

what is savant syndrome

Answer 26

in which persons with various developmental disorders, including autistic disorder, have an amazing ability and talent

Question 27

what brain degradation is in people with savant syndrome?

Answer 27

anterior temporal lobe

Question 28

what is inductive reasoning

Answer 28

-Using evidence to predict outcomes

Question 29

what is the availability heuristic

Answer 29

whatever information is available to us in our minds in that moment

Question 30

what is the representativeness heuristic? give an example

Answer 30

biased judgments made in everyday life. – an example of a representativeness heuristic is thinking that because someone is wearing a suit and tie and carrying a briefcase, that they must be a lawyer, because they look like the stereotype of a lawyer

Question 31

Why does the representativeness heuristic happen?

Answer 31

→ Base rates! We tend to forget about base rates

Question 32

what is confirmation bias?

Answer 32

when we are presented with information in the world around us, we tend to focus on things that conform to our beliefs and disregard the things that go against our beliefs

Question 33

what is the expected utility theory?

Answer 33

when faced with an array of risky decisions, an individual will choose the course of action that maximizes the utility (benefits minus costs) to that individual – basically people are bad at predicting the probability of something, people lose the ability to think things through

Question 34

explain the jelly bean study and the results

Answer 34

Jelly bean study- participants told to stick their hand into a jar (cant see inside the jar) with jelly beans, if they pick out a red jellybean, they are given 100 dollars. There are two jars that participants can choose from: one with 1 red jelly bean and 9 grey jelly beans, or another jar with 10 red jellybeans and 90 red jellybeans – most people would choose the first jar

Question 35

explain a study by Kermer and Colleagues (2006) and its results that explain how emotions drive our decisions

Answer 35

people came into lab, they finish a psychology experiment, given $5, about to leave, told before you leave, i’m gonna ask you to flip a quarter, if it lands on heads you get another $5, if it’s tails $3 is taken away from the 5. They are also asked how they would feel if each situation occurred and asked how they felt after the situation occurred. Results showed that we think negative things are going to feel way worse than they actually do
see image 4

Question 36

explain the incidental emotions study and its results

Answer 36

Study- had people come in and watch one of 3 videos: sad, disgusting, or neutral. Before the video, they were given markers to hold on to. They asked the participants: if i was to buy those markers back from you (value was $5), how much would you be willing to sell them for. People who watched the sad or disgusting videos were willing to sell the markers for less than people who watched the neutral video because the bad experience is associated with the object and they were more willing to part with it for less
Diff version- same as above but were asked how much they were willing to BUY the markers from the researchers for. People who watched the sad or disgust video were more likely to purchase the markers for more because after that emotional video they were looking for something to fill their lives
see image 5

Question 37

explain the c section context study and what the results showed

Answer 37

doctors were asked whether they think a mother should have a cesarean section performed on them. One group of participants were just presented with that critical case, one group were involved in 4 cesarean cases prior to the critical case, and the last group was involved in 4 prior cases where they did not need to perform a cesarean
-results show our experiences (context) impacts our decision making)
see image 6

Question 38

explain the parole context study

Answer 38

studied officers deciding whether to warrant parole before they had lunch vs. after they had lunch – officers only paroled after lunch and denied it before lunch because they were hungry

Question 39

explain organ donation in regards to how problems are stated have have an impact on our decision making

Answer 39

– Organ donation- in america, you have to opt in to be an organ donor (85% support organ donation), but in france you have to opt out to not donate their organs (99% support organ donor) – this is because in america the opt in procedure causes people to overthink all of the implication, but in france they don’t do that

Question 40

explain the psychiatric evaluation study in regards to how problems are stated have have an impact on our decision making

Answer 40

when a psych evaluation says “20 out of 100 patients like patient M will commit violent crime” vs. “20% of patients like patient M will commit violent crime” – patients are more likely to be allowed to re-enter society if it is framed the second way

Question 41

what is the optimism bias

Answer 41

-we tend to underestimate the likelihood that they will experience adverse events in their lifetime (e.g., skin cancer, car accidents)

Question 42

what does the optimism bias lead to?

Answer 42

risky behaviours (“this won’t happen to me”)

Question 43

what are the 3 characteristics of optimism bias

Answer 43

→ Frequency of event
→ Controllability of event
→ Severity of consequences associated with event

Question 44

what is the “frequency of event” characteristic of optimism bias? give an example

Answer 44

optimism bias is more prominent when event under consideration is rare (e.g., going bankrupt versus divorce)

Question 45

what is the “controllability of event” characteristic of optimism bias? give an example

Answer 45

ptimism bias is more prominent when event under consideration is perceived as being under one’s control (e.g., developing a drug addiction versus being mugged)

Question 46

what is the “severity of consequences associated with event” characteristic of optimism bias? give an example

Answer 46

optimism bias is less prominent when the consequences of the event under consideration are perceived as being more severe (e.g., heart attack versus tooth decay – like when we have a headache we assume we’re gonna die – the more severe the outcome, the less optimism bias)

Question 47

in which of the 3 characteristics of optimism bias does the egocentric bias apply? explain

Answer 47

Frequency of event and controllability of event
-rarer and controllable events are less likely for me, but not for others

Question 48

what are the two consequences of optimism bias? explain each

Answer 48

→ Risky behaviour- we think we can engage in risk behaviour because “we’ll be fine”
→ Mental exercise- we can jump into the future and imagine the worst possible outcome for a risky behaviour that we’re doing and then come back to the past and change our mindset to “is this really the way I want to end up?”