Week 11 Flashcards

Question

Flow chart of insight problem solving.

Answer 1

Initially, a problem representation is established using prior knowledge and perceptual processes. The problem representation is searched by heuristics (rules of thumb). If this proves unsuccessful, an impasse is encountered. This leads to a change in the problem representation and this new representation is also searched by heuristics. This process is continued until a solution is found or the problem is abandoned.

Answer 2

Functional fixedness occurs when we mistakenly assume that any given object has only a limited number of uses. Past experience generally increases our ability to solve problems. Gestaltists argued that this is not always the case. Indeed, numerous failures on insight problems occur because we are misled by our past experience. Negative effects of past experience are shown clearly in the phenomenon of functional ﬁxedness.

Answer 3

Two steps were involved: 1. Notice an infrequently noticed or new feature. 2. Form a solution based on that obscure feature.

Answer 4

In almost every case, two steps were involved: TACKS 1. Notice an infrequently noticed or new feature. 2.Form a solution based on that obscure feature.

Answer 5

The tendency to use a familiar problem-solving strategy that has proved successful in the past even when it is not appropriate. Mental set involves continuing to use a previously successful problem-solving strategy even when it is inappropriate or sub-optimal. Mental set is often useful in spite of its drawbacks – it allows successive problems of the same type to be solved rapidly and with few processing demands. Chess players: Their eye movements revealed they were still looking at features of the chessboard position related to the familiar solution. Thus, their direction of attention remained partly under the control of processes producing the initial familiar solution.

Answer 6

Human Problem Solving . Their central insight was that the strategies we use when tackling complex problems take account of our limited ability to process and store information. Limited short term capacity - complex information processing is one step at a time. problem space for each problem. .

Answer 7

Consists of the initial state of the problem, the goal state, all possible mental operators (e.g., moves) that can be applied to any state to change it into a different state, and all the intermediate problem states.

Answer 8

Newell and Simon (1972), we rely heavily on heuristics . Heuristics are rules of thumb that are easy to use and often produce reasonably accurate answers. Heuristics can be contrasted with algorithms , which are generally complex methods or procedures guaranteed to lead to problem solution.

Answer 9

A computational procedure providing a speciﬁed set of steps to problem solution. - Can be contrasted with heuristics.

Answer 10

A heuristic method for solving problems based on creating a sub-goal to reduce the difference between the current state and the goal state. According to Newell and Simon, the most important heuristic method is means– ends analysis. Useful and helps with problem solving. Means-ends analysis, the problem solver begins by envisioning the end, or ultimate goal, and then determines the best strategy for attaining the goal in his current situation. If, for example, one wished to drive from New York to Boston in the minimum time possible, Use of means– ends analysis requires knowledge of goal location, and so only the goal-information group could use that heuristic. However, the problem was designed so means– ends analysis would not be useful – every correct move involved turning away from the goal.

Answer 11

Involves changing the present state within the problem into one closer to the goal. It is simpler than means– ends analysis and is mostly used when the problem solver has no clear understanding of the problem structure. The hill-climbing heuristic involves a focus on short-term goals , and so often does not lead to problem solution. A simple heuristic used by problem solvers in which they focus on making moves that will apparently put them closer to the goal. The hill-climbing heuristic involves a focus on short-term goals , and so often does not lead to problem solution. Someone using this heuristic is like a climber who tries to reach the highest mountain peak in the area by using the strategy of always moving upwards. This may work, but it is likely that the climber will find himself/herself trapped on a hill separated by several valleys from the highest peak. It is simpler than means– ends analysis and is mostly used when the problem solver has no clear understanding of the problem structure.

Answer 12

MacGregor et al.- individuals engaged in problem solving use a heuristic known as progress monitoring . - involves assessing their rate of progress towards the goal. If progress is too slow to solve the problem within the maximum number of moves allowed, people adopt a different strategy. - A heuristic or rule of thumb in which slow progress towards problem solution triggers a change of strategy. Problem may be abandoned.

Answer 13

People with damage to the prefrontal cortex find it harder to plan ahead. It is generally assumed most people presented with complex problems will engage in some preliminary planning. Left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is involved in initial planning. Patients with right prefrontal damage had impaired planning in part because they made premature commitments to various decisions.

Answer 14

Is failing to solve problems, because one assumes from past experience that a given object has only a limited number of uses.

Answer 15

Most problem solvers engage in only a modest amount of planning because of limited short-term memory capacity.

Answer 16

Occur below the level of conscious awareness

Answer 17

Little planning. The evidence suggests problem solvers engage in deliberate preplanning some of the time. However, some problem-solving processes occur below the level of conscious awareness and many people often make little use of preplanning.

Answer 18

Someone who is economical with their time and effort when performing a thinking task.

Answer 19

Many theorists have proposed dual-process theories to account for the strategies used by individuals performing cognitive tasks such as judgement and reasoning.

Answer 20

A cognitive miser is someone who is typically economical with his/her time and effort on tasks requiring thinking. Low scorers on the Cognitive Reflection Test perform relatively poorly on a wide range of judgement and reasoning tasks Low score are cognitive misers. Cognitive Reflection Test correlates positively with intelligence.

Answer 21

In both cases, individuals resort to simple (and sometimes inaccurate) strategies. However, there is a difference. Newell and Simon assumed we use heuristics because we are forced to by our limited processing capacity. In contrast, cognitive misers use heuristics because they are reluctant to engage in effortful processing rather than because they cannot.

Answer 22

An analogy is “a comparison between two objects, or systems of objects, that highlights respects in which they are thought to be similar”

Answer 23

Reduced uncertainty and facilitated rapid, approximate problem solving.

Answer 24

1. Superficial similarity : Solution-irrelevant details (e.g., specific objects) are common to the two problems. 2. Structural similarity : Causal relations among some of the main components are shared by both problems. 3. Procedural similarity : Procedures for turning the solution principle into concrete operations are common to both problems.

Answer 25

Some findings are discouraging. Gick and Holyoak A problem was used in which a patient with a malignant stomach tumour can only be saved by a special kind of ray. However, a ray strong enough to destroy the tumour will also destroy the healthy tissue, whereas a ray that does not harm healthy tissue will be too weak to destroy the tumour. Only 10% of participants solved this problem when presented on its own.

Answer 26

The lack of superficial similarities between the story and the problem was important. When the story was superficially similar to the problem (it involved a surgeon using rays on a cancer), 88% of participants spontaneously recalled it when given the radiation problem.

Answer 27

In contrast, people in everyday life generally produce their own analogies: Blanchette and Dunbar (2000) confirmed previous findings showing that participants given the reception paradigm often selected analogies based on superficial similarities. However, those given the production paradigm mostly produced analogies sharing structural features with the current problem.

Answer 28

A comparison between two objects (or between a current and previous problem) that emphasises similarities between them. Much of the time, we cope successfully with novel situations by relating them to situations we have encountered previously.

Answer 29

In contrast, cognitive misers use heuristics because they are reluctant to engage in effortful processing rather than because they cannot. KEY TERM Analogy A comparison between two objects (or between a current and previous problem) that emphasises similarities between them.

Answer 30

they reduced uncertainty and facilitated rapid, approximate problem solving.

Answer 31

1. Encoding of the first pair of words based on the relationship between them; 2. Mapping (a connection is formed between the first words of each pair and an inference drawn as to the fourth word); 3. Response (decision concerning the correctness of the fourth word).

Answer 32

Analogies can be detected unconsciously.

Answer 33

Analytical problem solving.

Answer 34

First, performance on verbal and pictorial analogies was impaired when the additional task involved the central executive (an attention-like system). Thus, solving analogies requires the limited capacity of the central executive. Second, performance on verbal analogies was impaired when the additional task involved the phonological loop (used for verbal rehearsal). This happened because both tasks involved verbal processing. Third, performance on pictorial analogies suffered when the additional task involved the visuo-spatial sketchpad (used for basic visual and spatial processing).

Answer 35

a measure of fluid intelligence (non-verbal intelligence applied to novel problems). In addition, however, it is a test involving geometrical analogies (the correct answer is chosen based on analogical reasoning). As such, it is theoretically important to determine dimensions of individual differences influencing test performance.

Answer 36

The overall correlation between those two measures was +0.50. This relationship is due mainly to Raven’s items involving new rule combinations rather than the same rules as previous items. Individuals high in working memory capacity may have superior Raven’s performance because they have superior attentional or executive control than low scorers or because they have greater attentional capacity.

Answer 37

The high level of knowledge and performance in a given domain that an expert has achieved through years of systematic practice. The end point of such long-term learning is the development of expertise. The end point of such long-term learning is the development of expertise . Expertise involves a very high level of thinking and performance in a given domain (e.g., chess) as a result of many years of practice. studies on expertise have typically used “knowledge-rich” problems r

Answer 38

Studies on expertise have used knowledge rich problems requiring much knowledge beyond that contained in the problem.

Answer 39

This is due to differences in stored chess positions rather than in memory ability – there were no group differences in remembering random board positions.

Answer 40

As applied to chess, an abstract schematic structure consisting of a mixture of ﬁxed and variable information about chess pieces and positions. It is an abstract, schematic structure more general than an actual board position. Each template consists of a core (fixed information) plus slots (containing variable information about pieces and locations). Each template typically stores information relating to about ten pieces although it can be larger than that. Their possession of slots makes templates adaptable and flexible.

Answer 41

1. It predicts that chess positions are stored in three templates, some of which are relatively large. 2. It is assumed that outstanding chess players owe their excellence mostly to their superior template-based knowledge of chess rather than their use of slow, strategy-based processes. This template-based knowledge can be accessed rapidly and allows expert players to narrow down the possible moves they need to consider. If these assumptions are correct, the performance of outstanding players should remain high. 3. It is assumed that expert chess players store away the precise board locations of pieces after studying a board position. In addition, it is assumed that chess pieces close together are most likely to be found in the same template the have better recall than random players

Answer 42

Explicit reasoning is slow, deliberate and associated with conscious awareness. In contrast, Implicit reasoning is fast, automatic, and not associated with conscious awareness. The crucial assumption is that medical experts engage mainly in implicit reasoning while novices rely mostly on explicit reasoning. Note that dual process theories of judgement and reasoning involve rather similar distinctions between deliberate, explicit processes and rapid, implicit ones.

Answer 43

It suggests they used holistic or global processes. In contrast, the least expert doctors relied on a slower processing strategy.

Answer 44

Superior knowledge.

Answer 45

That was, indeed, the case with the least expert group. In striking contrast, the more expert groups (including dermatologists) performed better when not given the verbal descriptions. Experts used a rapid visual strategy and the verbal descriptions interfered with their ability to use that strategy effectively.

Answer 46

Relying on slow, analytic processes. An over simplification. Analytic thinking enhanced the diagnostic performance of experts with complex cases but not simple ones. In contrast, non-experts derived no benefit from engaging in analytic thinking.

Answer 47

Changes in the brain structure and function dependent on experience that affect behaviour.

Answer 48

Knowledge is stored may differ between the two kinds of expertise. Much of the knowledge possessed by chess experts consists of fairly abstract templates. In contrast, the knowledge possessed by medical experts is probably less abstract and more visual in nature. Second, chess experts have to relate a current chess position to their stored knowledge and then consider their subsequent moves and those of their opponent. In contrast, the task of medical experts is more narrowly focused on relating information about a specific case to their stored knowledge.

Answer 49

“changes in structure and function of the brain that affect behaviour and that are related to experience or training”. It is likely that structural changes resulting from plasticity facilitate further learning and the enhancement of expertise.

Answer 50

Memorising many details such as the streets when your profession is a cab driver.

Answer 51

Experienced London cab drivers have a greater volume of grey matter in the posterior hippocampus than novice drivers or other control groups, and older full-time cab drivers have greater grey matter volume in this area than those of the same age who have retired. Disadvantage: Taxi drivers performed poorly on tasks requiring them to learn and remember new word– word or object– place associations. These drivers had a smaller volume of grey matter than other people in the anterior hippocampus, which is important for processing novel stimuli and encoding information. The very extensive involvement of the hippocampus in learning The Knowledge may impair the ability to acquire new information.

Answer 52

Deliberate practice has four aspects: 1. The task is at an appropriate level of difficulty (not too easy or hard). 2. The learner is given informative feedback about his/her performance. 3. The learner has adequate chances to repeat the task. 4. The learner has the opportunity to correct his/her errors.

Answer 53

Involves the learner being provided with informative feedback and having the chance to correct his/her errors.

Answer 54

Experts can reduce the negative effects of having limited working memory capacity. They put forward the notion of long-term working memory .

Answer 55

Used by experts to store relevant information rapidly in long-term memory and to access it through retrieval cues in Working Memory

Answer 56

The novice must rely very largely on working memory (a system of limited capacity that processes and stores information briefly. In contrast, the expert player can use his/her huge relevant knowledge to store much of the information directly in long-term memory and thus enhance his/her recall of the board positions. In other words, the expert uses long-term working memory but the novice does not.

Answer 57

A student received extensive practice (one hour a day for two years) on the digit-span task in which random digits are recalled immediately in the correct order. His initial digit span was seven digits, but this increased dramatically to 80 digits at the end of practice. This is ten times the average performance level!

Answer 58

He started by using his great knowledge of running times. For example, if the first few digits were “3594” he would note this was Bannister’s world-record time for the mile and so store these four digits as a single unit or chunk. After that, he organised chunks into a hierarchical retrieval structure. Thus, SF made very effective use of long-term working memory.

Answer 59

There were two main findings. 1. the experts showed decreased activation in prefrontal and parietal areas as chunks were created and retrieved. 2. experts showed increased activation in medial temporal regions strongly associated with long-term memory as knowledge structures were created and retrieved. This pattern of findings differed from that of non-experts and suggests only experts used long-term working memory extensively.

Answer 60

According to Ericsson the main reason is a reduction in the amount of deliberate practice. This causes a reduction in performance level, which in turn leads to drop out. Evidence supportive of this proposed sequence was reported in a study on elite young chess players who had dropped out of competitive chess.

Answer 61

The amount of time any individual devotes to deliberate practice is typically not under experimental control. Individuals having high levels of innate talent and/or encountering early success are generally the ones most motivated to engage in substantial amounts of deliberate practice. Thus, correlations between amount of practice and skill level probably depend on two factors: 1. deliberate practice enhances skill level; 2. early success leads to greater subsequent practice.

Answer 62

1. All individuals who engage in massive deliberate practice should achieve very high skill levels. 2. The variability across individuals in the number of hours required to achieve high expertise should be relatively small. 3. Everyone’s skill level should benefit comparably from any given amount of deliberate practice.

Answer 63

Problems requiring no special knowledge.

Answer 64

Considerable background knowledge.

Answer 65

The use of previous knowledge and experience on a current problem.

Answer 66

What differentiates experts from novices in a given area.

Answer 67

There is behavioural, neuroimaging and verbal report evidence for the existence of insight. It can be facilitated by subtle hints. Incubation often beneﬁts problem solving because misleading information or ineffective strategies are forgotten. There is evidence supporting the assumptions of representational change theory that solving insight problems often requires constraint relaxation and/or re-encoding of the problem representation. However, constraint relaxation is often insufﬁcient on its own. The phenomena of functional ﬁxedness and mental set show past experience can have negative effects on problem solving. Functional ﬁxedness can be reduced by focusing on obscure features of an object and basing solutions on those features.

Answer 68

Problem solvers make extensive use of heuristics or rules of thumb such as hill climbing, means– ends analysis, and progress monitoring. Much problem solving involves successive stages of problem representation, planning and plan execution. Evidence from brain-damaged patients and neuroimaging indicates that the prefrontal cortex (especially the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) is heavily involved in planning and problem solving generally. Many problem solvers rely relatively little on deliberate pre-planning but make use of non-conscious learning processes. Cognitive misers fail to solve problems they have the ability to solve.

Answer 69

Analogical problem solving depends on three kinds of similarity: superﬁcial, structural and procedural. Failures to use analogies often occur through failures of memory retrieval. Such failures can be reduced if problem solvers identify the underlying structure of the current problem. Four-term analogy problems have three sequential stages of encoding, mapping or inference, and response. Several brain regions (especially within the prefrontal cortex) are involved in analogical reasoning. Individuals high in working memory capacity perform better than those low in capacity on analogical reasoning because they have great attentional control and attentional capacity.

Answer 70

Expertise is typically assessed by using knowledge-rich problems. Expert chess players differ from non-expert ones in possessing far more templates containing knowledge of chess positions. These templates permit expert players to identify good moves rapidly. However, the precise information contained in templates remains unclear. In addition, the template approach deemphasises the importance to chess performance of slow search processes and complex strategies.

Answer 71

Medical experts (e.g., radiologists) often rely more than non-experts on fast, automatic processes in diagnosis. This is revealed by eye-movement data indicating that experts rapidly ﬁxate relevant information and ignore task-irrelevant information. Slow, analytic processes can enhance diagnostic performance but the precise circumstances in which this is the case remain to be determined. Medical expertise involves more visual and less abstract knowledge than chess expertise. It is also more narrowly focused than chess expertise in that the primary goal is diagnosis rather than “diagnosis” of the current position plus complex planning of future moves.

Answer 72

There is accumulating evidence that there are differences in brain structure between experts and non-experts. Training studies (especially in music) have shown these changes in brain structure are often caused by experience and reﬂect brain plasticity. The structural changes associated with brain plasticity probably provide experts with an additional beneﬁt compared to non- experts.

Answer 73

According to Ericsson, the development of expertise depends on deliberate practice involving informative feedback and the opportunity to correct errors. Deliberate practice is necessary (but not sufﬁcient) for the development of expertise. The importance of innate talent is suggested by the variability in the amount of practice required to achieve high expertise and individual differences in the beneﬁts of a given amount of practice. Individual differences in innate ability are especially important in broad domains (e.g., career success). It may be mainly individuals of high innate ability who are motivated to devote thousands of hours to deliberate practice.

Answer 74

Remote associate's test.

Answer 75

Mental set

Answer 76

Constraint relaxation

Answer 77

Functional fixedness

Answer 78

Problem space

Answer 79

Hill climbing

Answer 80

It is not well suited to multiple-move problems requiring serial processing

Answer 81

Structural similarity

Answer 82

1. Using acquired knowledge to solve familiar problems efficiently. For example, by using templates, schemas or scripts.

Answer 83

Using acquired knowledge to develop strategies for dealing with novel problems. For example by extracting or matching patterns.

Answer 84

A lower level order of thinking than adaptive expertise, as the situation is generally known and can be seen as a kind of competence. True expertise in a field comes when the expert is able to adapt to new situations and apply their domain specific knowledge to them.

Answer 85

A lower level order of thinking than adaptive expertise, as the situation is generally known and can be seen as a kind of competence. True expertise in a field comes when the expert is able to adapt to new situations and apply their domain specific knowledge to them.

Answer 86

Going back to Kahneman and his System 1 and System 2 ways of thinking, experts have plenty of knowledge regarding System 2, and analyse situations within this system very well. They have very well-programmed 'shortcuts'—so they can use their System 1 to make good decisions with little mental effort. It appears that experts have different knowledge representations from non-experts. It may be true that they use automated System 1 decision-making during expert performance, but communicate their expertise in terms of System 2 explicit rules.

Answer 87

Chunking is the remembering of a chunk or package of information (a unit of meaning) by a pattern fragment key. For example, the number 26 might be a cue or key for a whole chunk of remembered information about a pattern of play in a sport. You may remember from Week 5 that your short term memory holds 7 +/-2 chunks of information at a time (Miller, 1956). Experts appear to be able to expand their working memory by having fast information retrieval and manipulation by chunking. The unitary store model of memory—where short-term working memory is made up of activated long-term memory—might be a mechanism for expanding working memory.

Answer 88

Deliberate effortful practice involves trying to build up patterns of information that will give us access to adaptive expertise. We extract patterns that are successful in terms of leading to particular outcomes. Generally, a familiarity with a situation is necessary to extract the relevant chunks (see the chunking information above). We choose tasks that are difficult in the domain we want to learn about and we practise those things and get feedback on the task. Consider the following: Task is at appropriate level of difficulty (not too easy, not too hard). Learner is given informative feedback about performance. Learner has adequate chance to repeat task. Learner has opportunity to correct errors. Repetition allows for the extraction of patterns of task relevant information (chunks).

Answer 89

Think of a child learning to kick a ball. The child can be given detailed instructions as to how to kick the ball and the physical mechanisms involved. However, in order to kick the ball on target, the child must practise the task. Feedback is given via how successful the kick is in connecting with the target. The child adapts their approach to the task based on the opportunity to correct errors based on feedback. Therefore, deliberate effortful practice is difficult—particularly if you are a cognitive miser.

Week 11 Flashcards

(114 cards)