Problem Solving

PSYC2007 – Fall 2021

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 Outline
• What is problem solving?

• The Gestalt approach

• The information-processing approach

• Expertise and problem solving

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 What is problem solving
• Richard Mayer’s (2013) definition:

Problem solving refers to cognitive processing

directed at achieving a goal when the problem
solver does not initially know a solution method. A
problem exists when someone has a goal but does
not know how to achieve it. … The major cognitive
processes in problem solving are representing,
planning, executing, and monitoring.

-- Problem Solving by Richard Mayer

The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Psychology

https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195376746.013.0048
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 The study of problem solving
• The Gestalt approach and the information processing
approach are two classic theoretical approaches in
the study of problem solving.

• Gestalt psychologists ask the following questions:

• How are problems represented in the mind?

• How can problem solving be understood as
restructuring of the representation?

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 Köhler’s circle
• The Gestalt approach can be understood through the
circle problem introduced by Wolfgang Köhler (1969).
A

D Find the length of the oblique side

CD, given the length of the
C diameter AB.
(See also Canestrari et al., 2018)

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 Initial representation
• A descriptive representation:
A circle …
A with thin vertical and horizontal
lines that divide the circle into
D quadrants, ..
and darker lines that create a small
C triangle in the upper left quadrant.

– à The oblique side CD is

B represented as one of the three
sides of a triangle.

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 Representation restructuring
• An alternative representation:
A circle …
A with thin vertical and horizontal
lines that divide the circle into
D quadrants, ..
and a small rectangle in the upper
C left quadrant, with the side CD
being the diagonal between the
corners.
B
– à The oblique side CD is a
diagonal of a rectangle.

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 Insight vs. noninsight problems
• Gestalt psychologists often associate representation
restructuring with a sudden discovery of the solution
to a problem — an insight.

• Some researchers argued that distinctions should be

made between insights versus noninsight problems.

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 Subjective feeling and insight
• Janet Metcalfe and Davie Wiebe (1987) asked:

How did participants feel subjectively as they get

closer to a solution for insight and noninsight
problems?

• Metcalfe and Wiebe asked their participants to give

subjective ratings on how close they feel they are
from the solving the problem.
– Participants used a 7-point scale.

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 Insight problem #1
• The triangle problem
You need to move no more than three dots to
make the triangle point downward.

Metcalfe & Wiebe (1987)

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 Insight problem #2
• The chain problem (aka the cheap necklace problem)

You need to join the four pieces of chain into a

single closed loop of chain. You have 15 cents to
spend on opening a link, which costs 2 cents
and, closing a link, which costs 3 cents.

Chu & MacGregor (2011)

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 Noninsight problems
• Metcalfe and Wiebe (1987) used insight problems
like the triangle and the chain problems.

• They also included noninsight problems, which were

math problems.

Metcalfe & Wiebe (1987)

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 The Aha! moment
• Metcalfe and Wiebe (1987) found that subjective
feeling remained at a low level and rose suddenly
before the problem was solved.

Metcalfe & Wiebe (1987)

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 Duncker’s (1945) candle problem
• You are in a room with a corkboard mounted on the
wall. You are given the following materials:

Can you mount a candle on the corkboard such

that it will burn without dripping wax on the floor?

Image source: Glucksberg & Weisberg (1966)

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 Functional fixedness
• When a function of an object is hinted or mentioned,
such object-function link is relatively fixed.

• The box in the candle problem

was presented with a function —
for holding the tacks.

What if no such prior suggestion is hinted?

Image source: Glucksberg & Weisberg (1966)

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 Solution to the candle problem

Image source: Falavarjani & Yeh (2017)

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 Reducing on functional fixedness
• Robert Adamson (1952) asked:
Will the candle problem be more easily solved if
no prior function is suggested?

• Boxes-empty group
– The boxes were presented with NO tacks inside.
• Boxes-as-containers group
– The boxes were presented with tacks inside.

Adamson (1952)
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 Reducing on functional fixedness
100

86
• Eight-six percent of
80
participants in the
Percent solving problem

boxes-empty group
60 successfully solved the
problem.
41
40

• The problem solvers in

20
the boxes-empty group
also solved it faster.
0
Boxes empty Boxes as
containers
Adamson (1952)
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 Incremental problem
• Tower of Hanoi:
Go from Given state to Goal state
Allowable moves:
• Move only one disc at a time
• Take only the top disc on a peg
• Never place a larger disc on top of a smaller one

Image source: Knoblock (2000)

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 Information-processing approach
• Alan Newell and Herbert Simon (1972) thought about
problem solving as a search in the space between
the problem and its solution.

• Tower of Hanoi
– Initial state à problem
– Intermediate states à transitions
– Goal state à solution
– Operators take the problem from one state to another.

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 The problem space

Image source: Knoblock (2000)

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 Expertise and problem solving
• William Chase and Herbert Simon (1973) were
interested in the differences between experts and
novices in solving a problem.

Did experts and novices process the information

available in a task differently?

• They compared how well a master chess player, a

class A player and a beginner could memorize the
positions of pieces after a 5-second view.

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 Master player performed better

Correct pieces

Trials
• The master chess player could remember the
positions of pieces from a mid-game arrangement
more accurately than the other two players.

Chase & Simon (1973)

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 NOT for random placement though

Correct pieces

Trials

• However, the master chess player’s advantage of

memorizing the positions of pieces was eliminated
when the placement of pieces was random.
– Why?
Chase & Simon (1973)
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 Summary
• Problem solving involves multiple cognitive
processes.

• Gestalt psychologists think about problem solving as

representation restructuring.

• Problem solving is a search in the problem space

between the initial and goal states according to the
information-processing approach.

• Experts and novices process information differently.

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 Sections from the textbook
• Chapter 12
– What Is a Problem?
– The Gestalt Approach
– The information-Processing Approach
– How Experts Solve Problems

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