Problem Solving Approaches in Psychology
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What is a characteristic of the behaviourist approach to problem solving?

  • Belief that problem solving requires creativity
  • Emphasis on insight and understanding
  • Use of complex, abstract reasoning
  • Focus on observable behaviour and stimulus-response associations (correct)

    • What does Thorndike's law of effect state about learning?

  • Responses are strengthened by positive effects and weakened by negative effects. (correct)
  • All problem solving occurs through insightful thought.
  • Learning occurs only through insight and instant understanding.
  • There is no relation between behaviour and environmental outcomes.

    • How did Kohler demonstrate the concept of insight in problem solving?

  • By showing that chimpanzees could solve complex puzzles using trial and error.
  • By providing no evidence of any learning from the chimp's attempts.
  • By illustrating how a chimp could combine tools to reach a goal after some contemplation. (correct)
  • By demonstrating that chimpanzees could use two short sticks when prompted.

    • What is the purpose of the incubation stage as proposed by Wallas?

    <p>To put the problem aside and allow subconscious processing.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What were the results of Silveria's experiments on incubation in problem solving?

    <p>Taking breaks positively influenced the overall problem-solving success rate.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which stage of creative thinking involves testing the feasibility of a new insight?

    <p>Verification</p> Signup and view all the answers

    In Murray and Denny's study, how did breaks influence participants' problem-solving ability?

    <p>Breaks were shown to improve performance, especially in difficult problems.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following best describes the Gestalt approach to problem-solving?

    <p>Belief that insight can lead to immediate problem resolution.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the Einstellung effect primarily concerned with?

    <p>The commitment to a previously successful problem-solving approach even when it's inadequate</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How did the control group in Luchins' water jug problem experiment differ from the SET group?

    <p>They used a varied and simpler method to solve problems.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is meant by functional fixedness in problem-solving?

    <p>An inability to see alternative uses for an object beyond its traditional function</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which method was suggested to overcome fixedness based on Scheerer's findings?

    <p>Thinking outside conventional frameworks to find solutions</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does the 'feeling of knowing' (FoK) phenomenon describe?

    <p>The false belief that a solution is imminent but remains unarticulated</p> Signup and view all the answers

    According to Metcalfe’s research, how does the feeling of warmth (FoW) function in problem-solving?

    <p>It primarily is more useful for predicting progress in incremental problems rather than insightful ones.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which barrier to problem-solving refers to continued use of a method that may be outdated?

    <p>Mental set</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary experimental condition used in assessing the impact of mental sets according to Luchins’ work?

    <p>Providing challenging problems that encourage method persistence</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What key distinction does Thorndike's experiment highlight about the behaviourist approach to problem solving?

    <p>Incremental learning occurs through trial and error.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which aspect of the incubation stage is emphasized through the findings of Silveria's experiments?

    <p>Short breaks lead to higher solution rates than continuous effort.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What conclusion can be drawn from Murray and Denny's study regarding problem-solving ability?

    <p>Short breaks benefit low ability individuals more than high ability individuals.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What distinguishes deductive reasoning from inductive reasoning?

    <p>Deductive reasoning uses general rules to reach a conclusion.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which concept refers to the idea that scientific theories should be tested by attempts to disprove them?

    <p>Falsification</p> Signup and view all the answers

    In the Wason card selection task, what is a common error that participants make?

    <p>Selecting cards that confirm the rule.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What factor is critical in improving reasoning performance according to the memory cueing hypothesis?

    <p>Recalling cases that disconfirm a rule.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What role does pragmatic reasoning play in problem-solving?

    <p>It enhances reasoning in familiar contexts.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which scenario exemplifies the principle that experience improves reasoning performance?

    <p>Concrete examples and familiar situations enhance understanding.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What outcome was found regarding incentives in the performance of reasoning tasks?

    <p>Incentives have no effect on performance.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a key reason participants struggle with the Wason task?

    <p>They fall victim to confirmation bias.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What characterizes deductive reasoning in the context of logical conclusions?

    <p>It derives specific conclusions from general rules.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which statement accurately reflects the process of scientific induction?

    <p>It formulates a general rule based on specific repeated observations.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does the memory cueing hypothesis suggest regarding reasoning performance?

    <p>People perform better when they recall disconfirming cases.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which reasoning method allows for the conclusion to be drawn directly from premises without considering alternatives?

    <p>Modus ponens</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a characteristic of invalid syllogisms that distinguishes them from valid syllogisms?

    <p>They involve incorrect conclusions derived from true premises.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following best describes the effect of mental models on reasoning performance?

    <p>Increased complexity in models leads to poorer reasoning.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    In the context of conditional reasoning, what does the denial of the antecedent inaccurately imply?

    <p>P cannot happen if Q does not happen.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which syllogistic reasoning is more likely to lead to errors due to its complexity?

    <p>Modus tollens</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following accurately describes the implication of modus tollens in reasoning?

    <p>If Q does not happen, then P cannot happen.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a common misconception regarding the affirmation of the consequence?

    <p>It implies certainty of P when Q occurs.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How do mental models impact reasoning according to Johnson-Laird?

    <p>They may lead to errors if not all possibilities are considered.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What distinguishes valid syllogisms from invalid syllogisms?

    <p>The conclusion must derive directly from the premises.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What finding did Tversky & Kahneman's taxi-cab study reveal about base rate neglect?

    <p>Most participants overestimated the likelihood of blue taxis, ignoring the base rate.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    In the medical diagnosis study by Casecells et al., what percentage of medical students estimated an incorrect probability of a disease due to base rate neglect?

    <p>45%</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How does the format of information presentation impact base rate neglect according to Cosmides & Tooby's findings?

    <p>Frequency format reduces base rate neglect compared to probability format.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the most accurate conclusion about base rate neglect and medical decisions?

    <p>Base rate neglect occurs primarily when probabilities are used in reasoning.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What scenario illustrates the concept of base rate neglect in estimating probabilities?

    <p>Estimating a rare event’s likelihood without considering its low prevalence.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What best exemplifies the concept of belief bias in reasoning?

    <p>Accepting an invalid conclusion because it aligns with existing beliefs</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which scenario illustrates the conjunction fallacy as identified by Kahneman and Tversky?

    <p>Deciding that a character description fits better with a bank teller's profile than a bank teller and an environmentalist</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What cognitive shortcut is most likely to lead to poor risk assessment?

    <p>Availability heuristic</p> Signup and view all the answers

    According to research on frequency estimation, which of the following statements is correct?

    <p>Participants underestimate high-frequency events and overestimate low-frequency events</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a characteristic of heuristics in human reasoning?

    <p>They serve as cognitive shortcuts that may simplify problem-solving</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What describes the gambler's fallacy?

    <p>The idea that the past occurrence of an event increases its likelihood in the future</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What effect does the representative heuristic have on decision-making?

    <p>It causes individuals to compare new information against pre-existing stereotypes</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What key mistake do individuals make when assessing probabilities as per the conjunction fallacy?

    <p>Evaluating two events as more likely to happen together than separately</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the representative heuristic primarily based on?

    <p>Estimating the probability of an event by comparing it to a known stereotype</p> Signup and view all the answers

    In the Linda problem study, what did the majority of participants incorrectly conclude?

    <p>Linda is more likely a bank teller and a feminist than just a bank teller</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What outcome did Kahneman and Tversky discover regarding base rates in judgment?

    <p>Individuals often ignore base rates in favor of anecdotal evidence</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which bias is exemplified by a preference for the more specific description of Linda as a feminist bank teller?

    <p>Conjunction fallacy</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What fundamental reasoning error is demonstrated in the engineering and lawyer study?

    <p>Neglect of the base rate</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Study Notes

    Problem Solving Approaches

    • Problem solving arises when a clear goal exists but the solution is unknown.
    • Key approaches include behaviourist, Gestalt, inductive, and deductive reasoning.

    Behaviourist Approach

    • Focus: Observable behaviour.
    • Emphasis: Stimulus-response associations.
    • Method: Trial and error.
    • Thorndike's cat experiments (puzzle boxes): Demonstrated incremental learning in animals.
    • Thorndike's Law of Effect: Positive consequences reinforce responses, negative consequences weaken them; problem solving is incremental, not sudden.

    Gestalt Approach

    • Focus: Insight.
    • Kohler's chimpanzee experiments (banana): Demonstrated insightful problem solving using tools.
    • Insightful solutions are sudden, unlike incremental trial and error.

    Creative Thinking (Wallas)

    • Stages of creative thinking:
      • Preparation: Active information gathering and problem work.
      • Incubation: Setting the problem aside.
      • Illumination: Sudden insight into a solution.
      • Verification: Testing and refining the solution.

    Evidence for Incubation

    • Silveria (1971): Necklace problem. Incubation benefited lower-ability individuals.
    • Murray and Denny (1969): Incubation can hinder high-ability individuals, interrupting their workflow. This hindrance applies more to complex or difficult problems.

    Barriers to Successful Problem Solving

    • Mental Set/Einstellung: Pre-existing successful approaches hinder new solutions.
    • Luchins' water jug problem: Demonstrates how an efficient, albeit inefficient approach (subtraction), prevents recognition of simpler solutions.
    • Functional Fixedness: Inability to see beyond an object's typical use.
    • Duncker's candle problem: Participants fixated on the box's primary function (to hold the matches) and couldn't perceive alternate uses.
    • Scheerer's nine-dot problem: Individuals struggled to overcome mental rigidity, fixated on the box's primary function.

    Insight and Hints

    • Hints can help or solve insight problems.
    • Whether true insight exists without hints is debated. Hints are essential in many scenarios.
    • Weisberg & Alba (1981): Many insight problems require hints.

    Role of Past Experience

    • Past problem-solving experiences guide current approaches, often involving memory and restructuring (organizing past information).

    Feelings of Knowing (FoK) & Feelings of Warmth (FoW)

    • FoK: Feeling familiar with a solution without recall.
    • Brown & McNeil (1966): Found FoK sometimes predicts answers when a word's initial letter is known. Insights problems aren't helped by feelings of knowing.
    • Metcalfe (1986): FoK is useful for general knowledge, not insight problems.
    • FoW: Indicates proximity to a solution.
    • Metcalfe & Wiebe (1987): FoW predicts progress in incremental, not insight based, problem-solving.

    Deductive Reasoning (Syllogism)

    • Deductive reasoning: A logical argument with two premises and a conclusion.
    • Example: All cats are animals. All animals are living organisms. Therefore, all cats are living organisms.
    • Modus Ponens: If P, then Q. P → Q.
    • Modus Tollens: If P, then Q. Not Q → Not P.
    • Invalid syllogisms:
      • Affirmation of the consequence: If P, then Q. Q → P (Incorrect assumption)
      • Denial of the antecedent: If P, then Q. Not P → Not Q (Incorrect assumption)

    Reasoning: Mental Models (Johnson-Laird, 1983)

    • Reasoning involves creating mental models to assess conclusions based on problem information.
    • Errors result from not considering all possible models; increased model complexity hinders reasoning accuracy.
    • Mental models represent possibilities; they do not include impossibly.

    Reasoning: Inductive and Deductive

    • Reasoning employs induction and deduction.

    Inductive Reasoning

    • Reasoning from specific observations to general conclusions; Observation → Pattern → Hypothesis → Theory

    Deduction

    • Starts with a general rule and leads to a certain conclusion if the rule is true. Theory → Hypothesis → Observation → Confirmation

    Reasoning Tasks

    • Wason task (2-4-6 task): Confirmation bias (prior beliefs) often leads to poor performance. Minimal improvement despite incentives.
    • Wason card selection task: People often choose cards that confirm, rather than falsify, the rule. Concrete examples and context improve performance (Wason & Shapiro, 1971).
    • Factors Influencing Reasoning:
      • Memory cues are relevant
      • Pragmatic reasoning improves performance in familiar contexts.

    Biases in Reasoning

    • Belief Bias: Accepting believable but invalid conclusions, overriding logical reasoning. This frequently happens with the first believable model presented.
    • Heuristics: Mental shortcuts for problem solving; results are efficient but not necessarily optimal.
    • Representative Heuristic (Kahneman & Tversky, 1972, 1973): Judging probability by comparing to stereotypes,
      • Engineering/Lawyer example (Kahneman & Tversky, 1973): Overlooking base rates for specific features. Participants were asked to guess the profession from a box of cards with brief character descriptions. The box contained 30 descriptions of engineers and 70 of lawyers. Findings: Participants ignore the base rate probabilities and base their judgement on whether the description sounded like a description of an engineer or a lawyer.
      • Conjunction Fallacy (Kahneman & Tversky, 1982): Linda problem: Thinking the probability of two events is higher than the probability of one event (e.g., bank teller and a feminist). More likely to happen with conjunctions than individual events
        • Example: Linda is 31, outspoken, and concerned about discrimination. Question: Is Linda more likely a bank teller or a bank teller and a feminist? Finding: 90% chose "feminist bank teller" (conjunction fallacy).
    • Gambler's Fallacy: Belief a random event's future likelihood depends on past outcomes.
    • Availability Heuristic: Quick decision making based on easily accessible information, potentially impacting risk assessment. This leads to overestimation of low-frequency events and underestimation of high frequency events.
      • Lichtenstein et al. (1978): Participants underestimated frequent causes of death (e.g., heart disease, cancer) and overestimated infrequent causes (e.g., accidents).
    • Base Rate Neglect: Ignoring base rates (general prevalence); over-focusing on specific details.
      • Tversky & Kahneman (1982): Taxi-cab study. Participants overestimated the likelihood of blue taxis based on identification accuracy, despite the base rate difference.
      • Casecells et. al. (1978): Medical diagnosis study. Medical students ignored the low disease prevalence (1/1000), focusing on the false +ive rate instead; better with frequencies than probabilities (Cosmides & Tooby, 1996).

    Normative Reasoning

    • Decision-making involves evaluating potential outcomes and probable information. e.g., What might happen?

    Human Reasoning

    • Human reasoning is biased due to heuristics.
    • Heuristics are cognitive shortcuts leading to sufficient, not necessarily optimal, results.

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    Description

    Explore the different approaches to problem solving in psychology, focusing on the behaviourist and Gestalt methods. Understand the significance of both trial and error learning and insightful problem solving as illustrated by key experiments. Additionally, delve into the stages of creative thinking and the concept of incubation.

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