Problem-Solving Strategies in Psychology

PSYC100: Psychology Thinking, Intelligence, Language

• Course offered by Koç University in Fall 2024.
• Instructor: Gözde Şentürk

Atkinson and Shiffrin's Modal Model of Memory

• Components include: long-term memory, sensory memory, short-term memory.
• Working memory is not a component of the modal model.

Auditory Sensory Memory

• Also known as echoic memory.

Reinforcement Schedules

• Fixed interval: reinforcement delivered after a set amount of time.
• The correct answer is fixed interval.

Thinking, Problem Solving, and Reasoning

• Thinking: mentally representing aspects of the world and transforming those representations for goals.
• Problem solving: cognitive processes used to reach a goal when obstacles exist.
• Reasoning: cognitive processes for drawing inferences and reaching conclusions.

Elements of Thinking

• Mental images: mental representations of stimuli and events.
• Concepts: ideas representing stimuli, objects, or categories.
• Prototype: the best representative of a category.

What is a Problem?

• A situation with an obstacle between a present state and a goal state, where solutions are not immediately obvious.
• Examples included: solving a function, wedding seating arrangements, or navigating around a sleeping cat.

How to Solve a Problem Step-by-Step

• Identify the problem.
• Represent the problem.
• Take actions to reach the goal.

Structure of a Problem

• Initial state (start state): The problem's starting condition.
• Goal state: The desired outcome.
• Operations: Actions taken to move from the initial state to the goal state.

Tower of Hanoi

• Rules: Only one disk can move at a time, and larger disks cannot be placed on smaller disks.
• Goal: Move all disks from one peg to another.

Tower of Hanoi in Newell-Simon Approach

• The problem space includes all possible states (disk arrangements).
• The best solution usually involves a limited number of steps (e.g., 7 in a three-disk tower).
• Means-end analysis is a problem-solving method focusing on reducing the difference between the current state and the goal state.

How Do We Solve Problems?

• Trial and error (mechanical solutions)
• Algorithms
• Heuristics
• Insight

Problem Solving Strategies

• Trial and error: trying different solutions until a solution is found.
• Algorithms: step-by-step procedures.
• Heuristics: general problem-solving frameworks/mental shortcuts, e.g., working backwards.

Some Heuristics

• Anchoring: focusing on a single piece of information.
• Confirmation bias: focusing on information that confirms pre-existing beliefs.
• Hindsight: believing that an event was predictable after it happened.
• Representativeness: unintentional stereotyping.
• Availability: judgments based on available examples or precedents, perhaps faulty ones.

Gestalt Approach: Problem Solving

• Introduced the study of problem solving in the 1920s.
• A perceptual approach to problem solving.
• Problem representation in the mind.
• Reorganizing/restructuring the representation.
• Insight: sudden realization of a solution.

Why Can't We Solve Problems?

• Confirmation bias: focusing on evidence that confirms thoughts and ignoring contradictory evidence.
• Mental sets: using an old solution that won't work.
• Functional fixedness: focusing on the main function of a tool.

Gestalt Approach: Problem Solving (Continued)

• Example: Maier's two-string problem (functional fixedness).
• Solutions are often improved with insights or restructing the way the problem is perceived.

Creativity

• Solving problems in new ways.
• Convergent thinking: one correct answer.
• Divergent thinking: multiple solutions.

Creative Problem Solving: Generating Ideas

• Too much knowledge can reduce creative thinking.
• Previous exposure to a problem can reduce creativity.
• Group brainstorming: encourages ideas without censorship.
• Fewer ideas generated in group settings than individuals.

Intelligence

• This section deals with different theories and measurements of intelligence.

Some Theories About Intelligence

• Spearman's g factor
• Gardner's Multiple Intelligences
• Sternberg's Triarchic Theory
• Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) Theory
• Neuroscience Theories

Spearman's g Factor

• General intelligence (problem-solving/reasoning).
• Measured by traditional IQ tests.
• Specific intelligence (excelling in a specific area).
• Intelligence in different areas correlate.

Gardner's Multiple Intelligences

• Eight (or more) types of intelligences.
• Criticized for lack of empirical support.

Sternberg's Triarchic Theory

• Three types of intelligence: analytical, creative, and practical.

Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) Theory

• Three-tier hierarchical model.
• General ability ("g factor").
• Crystallized and fluid intelligence.
• Added categories.

Neuroscience Theories

• Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory: importance of frontal/parietal lobes.
• Frontal lobe involvement in many processes (problem solving, short-term memory, reasoning).

Measuring Intelligence

• Binet's Mental Ability Test
• Stanford-Binet and IQ
• Wechsler Tests (WAIS-IV, WISC-V, WPPSI-IV)

Binet's Mental Ability Test

• Developed to identify children needing extra support in school.
• Used verbally-based tasks.
• Mental age determined as an output.

Stanford-Binet and IQ

• Standardized format.
• Average scores established for different age groups.
• IQ calculation: mental age/chronological age x 100.
• Scores on tests of intelligence often form a bell curve in distribution.

The Wechsler Tests

• Combining subtests from various tests.
• Wechsler believed in a global capacity for acting, thinking, and responding effectively to environments.
• Used in assessing adult intelligence, and for children/pre-school age groups.

How Good is a Test?

• Reliability: consistency of test results.
• Validity: test measures what it intends to assess.
• Standardization: consistent administration, scoring, and interpretation.
• Norms: collected data (e.g. age-based) used in interpreting test scores.
• IQ tests & cultural bias (potential for biases).
• Usefulness of IQ tests.

The Distribution of IQ Scores

• Average IQ: 100
• Standard Deviation: 15
• Majority of people have IQs between 85 and 115.

Language

• System for communication using sounds or symbols.
• Used to express emotions, thoughts, ideas, and experiences.

What is Language?

• Animals use various forms of communication.
• Examples of animal communication: cats, dogs, monkeys, bees.

What Makes Human Language Unique?

• Creativity: generate new sentences
• Hierarchical structure: complex structure to sentences
• Universal need to communicate: evident in deaf children developing language.
• Similar language development across cultures.

Studying Language

• Behaviorism: role of reward/punishment.
• Noam Chomsky: language is programmed in the genes.
• Underlying similarities in languages, yet distinct differences exist.

Different Levels of Language Representation

• Discourse level (e.g. Inference)
• Syntactic level (e.g. Sentences)
• Word level (e.g. Words)
• Morpheme level (e.g. parts of words)
• Phoneme level (e.g. sounds)

Perceiving Phonemes, Words, and Letters

• First words often around age 2.
• Lexicon: storage of words/meanings.
• Phonemes: smallest meaningful units of sounds.
• Morphemes: smallest meaningful units of meaning.

The Acoustic Stimulus

• How speech sounds are generated.
• Vocal apparatus and vibrations cause pressure changes in the air.

Speech Perception

• Consider variables (background noise, speed, clarity, pitch).

The Speech Stimulus

• Speech is typically not a pure tone, but complex, with various frequencies.
• Consists of abrupt starts/stops, silences, and additional noises.

The Effect of Meaning on Perceiving Sounds and Letters

• Context helps in understanding speech.
• Words easier to recognize in sentences than alone.
• Spaces between words although not always obvious, aid in segmentation.

The Effect of Meaning on Sounds & Letters (Continued)

Language segmentation is typically harder in unfamiliar languages. The meaning of the sentence often helps segmenting. Speech sounds are often grouped in predictable ways within words.

Language and Culture

• Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: language influences how we perceive the world.

References

• Include the citations provided in the slides for each research/concept.

This quiz covers essential concepts related to problem-solving strategies within psychology. Explore various definitions, processes, and memory models that inform how we approach problems. Perfect for students wanting to test their understanding of cognitive strategies and memory functions.