Problem Solving: Lecture Notes

Part I. Types of Problems

Problem Solving is an effort to overcome obstacles obstructing the path to a solution.

The problem-solving cycle includes: problem identification, problem definition, strategy

formulation, organization of information, allocation of resources, monitoring, and
evaluation.

In considering the steps, remember also the importance of flexibility in following the
various steps of the cycle. Successful problem solving may involve occasionally
tolerating some ambiguity regarding how best to proceed. Rarely can we solve
problems by following any one optimal sequence of problem-solving steps. We may go
back and forth through the steps. We can change their order, or even skip or add steps
when it seems appropriate. Following is a description of each part of the
problem-solving cycle.

1. Problem identification: Do we actually have a problem?

2. Problem definition and representation: What exactly is our problem?
3. Strategy formulation: How can we solve the problem? The strategy may
involve analysis—breaking down the whole of a complex problem into
manageable elements. Instead, or perhaps in addition, it may involve the
complementary process of synthesis—putting together various elements to
arrange them into something useful. Another pair of complementary
strategies involves divergent and convergent thinking. In divergent thinking,
you try to generate a diverse assortment of possible alternative solutions to a
problem. Once you have considered a variety of possibilities, however, you
must engage in convergent thinking to narrow down the multiple
possibilities to converge on a single best answer.
4. Organization of information: How do the various pieces of information in
the problem fit together?
5. Resource allocation: How much time, effort, money, etc., should I put into
this problem?
Studies show that expert problem solvers (and better students) tend to devote
more of their mental resources to global (big-picture) planning than do novice
problem solvers. Novices (and poorer students) tend to allocate more time to
 local (detail-oriented) planning than do experts. For example, better students
are more likely than poorer students to spend more time in the initial phase,
deciding how to solve a problem, and less time actually solving it. By
spending more time in advance deciding what to do, effective students are
less likely to fall prey to false starts, winding paths, and all kinds of errors.
When a person allocates more mental resources to planning on a large scale,
he or she is able to save time and energy and to avoid frustration later on.
6. Monitoring: Am I on track as I proceed to solve the problem?
7. Evaluation: Did I solve the problem correctly?

TYPES OF PROBLEMS

Problems can be categorized according to whether they have clear paths to a solution.

Well-structured problems have clear paths to solutions. These problems also are
termed well-defined problems. An example would be, “How do you find the area of a
parallelogram?”

Ill-structured problems lack clear paths to solutions. These problems are also termed
ill-defined problems. An example is how do you decide on which house to buy if each of
the potential houses in which you are interested has advantages and disadvantages?

Of course, in the real world of problems, these two categories may represent a
continuum of clarity in problem solving rather than two discrete classes with a clear
boundary between the two. Nonetheless, the categories are useful in understanding
how people solve problems.

Well Structured Problems

On tests in school, your teachers have asked you to tackle countless well-structured
problems in specific content areas (e.g., math, history, geography). These problems had
clear paths, if not necessarily easy paths, to their solutions—in particular, the application
of a formula.

People seem to make three main kinds of errors when trying to solve well-structured
problems. These errors are:

Inadvertently moving backward: They revert to a state that is further from the end
goal.

Making illegal moves: They make an illegal move—that is, a move that is not
permitted according to the terms of the problem.
Not realizing the nature of the next legal move: They become “stuck”—they do not
know what to do next, given the current stage of the problem.

A problem space is the universe of all possible actions that can be applied to solving a
problem, given any constraints that apply to the solution of the problem.

Algorithms are sequences of operations (in a problem space) that may be repeated
over and over again and that, in theory, guarantee the solution to a problem. Generally,
an algorithm continues until it satisfies a condition determined by a program. Suppose a
computer is provided with a well defined problem and an appropriate hierarchy
(program) of operations organized into procedural algorithms. The computer can readily
calculate all possible operations and combinations of operations within the problem
space. It also can determine the best possible sequence of steps to take to solve the
problem. Unlike computers, however, the human mind does not specialize in high-speed
computations of numerous possible combinations. The limits of our working memory
prohibit us from considering more than just a few possible operations at one time.
Newell and Simon recognized these limits and observed that humans must use mental
shortcuts for solving problems. These mental shortcuts are termed
heuristics—informal, intuitive, speculative strategies that sometimes lead to an
effective solution and sometimes do not. Various other problem-solving heuristics
include working forward, working backward, and generate and test.

Ill-Structured Problems and the Role of Insight

There are no clear, readily available paths to solution. By definition, ill-structured

problems do not have well-defined problem spaces. Problem solvers have difficulty
constructing appropriate mental representations for modeling these problems and their
solutions. For such problems, much of the difficulty is in constructing a plan for
sequentially following a series of steps that inch ever closer to their solution.

Justification skills are important because ill-structured problems can be represented in

different ways and often have alternative solutions. Thus, problem solvers need to
choose and justify their selection of a particular representation and solution.A woman
who lived in a small town married 20 different men in that same town. All of them are
still living, and she never divorced any of them. Yet she broke no laws.

How could she do this?

The woman who was involved in multiple marriages is a minister. The critical element
for solving this problem is to recognize that the word married may be used to describe
the performance of the marriage ceremony. So the minister married the 20 men but did
not herself become wedded to any of them. To solve this problem, you had to redefine
your interpretation of the term married. Others have suggested yet additional
possibilities. For example, perhaps the woman was an actress and only married the
men in her role as an actress. Or perhaps the woman’s multiple marriages were
annulled so she never technically divorced any of the men.

Insight is a distinctive and sometimes seemingly sudden understanding of a problem or

of a strategy that aids in solving the problem. Often, an insight involves
reconceptualizing a problem or a strategy in a totally new way. Insight often involves
detecting and combining relevant old and new information to gain a novel view of the
problem or of its solution. Although insights may feel as though they are sudden, they
are often the result of much prior thought and hard work. Without this work, the insight
would never have occurred. Insight can be involved in solving well structured problems,
but it more often is associated with the rocky and twisting path to solution that
characterizes ill-structured problems. For many years, psychologists interested in
problem solving have been trying to figure out the true nature of insight.

According to Smith (1995), insights need not be sudden “a-ha” experiences. They may
and often do occur gradually and incrementally over time. When an insightful solution is
needed but not forthcoming, sleep may help produce a solution. In both mathematical
problem solving and solution of a task that requires understanding underlying rules,
sleep has been shown to increase the likelihood that an insight will be produced.
Unfortunately, insights—like many other aspects of human thinking—can be both
startlingly brilliant and dead wrong. How do we fall into mental traps that lead us down
false paths as we try to reach solutions?

Part II. Problems Involving Transfer

Mental Set

One factor that can hinder problem solving is a mental set—a frame of mind involving
an existing model for representing a problem, a problem context, or a procedure for
problem solving. Another term for mental set is entrenchment. When problem solvers
have an entrenched mental set, they fixate on a strategy that normally works well in
solving many problems but that does not work well in solving this particular problem. For
example, in the two-string problem, you may fixate on strategies that involve moving
yourself toward the string, rather than moving the string toward you.

Another type of mental set involves fixation on a particular use (function) for an object.
Specifically, functional fixedness is the inability to realize that something known to
have a particular use may also be used for performing other functions. Functional
fixedness prevents us from solving new problems by using old tools in novel ways.
Becoming free of functional fixedness is what first allowed people to use a reshaped
coat hanger to get into a locked car. It is also what first allowed thieves to pick simple
spring door locks with a credit card.
Another type of mental set is considered an aspect of social cognition. Stereotypes are
beliefs that members of a social group tend more or less uniformly to have particular
types of characteristics. We seem to learn many stereotypes during childhood. For
example, cross-cultural studies of children show their increasing knowledge about—
and use of—gender stereotypes across the childhood years. Stereotype awareness, for
a variety of groups, develops in most children between the ages of 6 and 10.
Stereotypes often arise in the same way that other kinds of mental sets develop. We
observe a particular instance or set of instances of some pattern. We then may
overgeneralize from those limited observations. We may assume that all future
instances similarly will demonstrate that pattern. For example, we may observe that
some African Americans can run very fast. If we then conclude that every African
American is a fast runner, we do have a stereotype because not every African American
is a fast runner. Of course, when the stereotypes are used to target particular
scapegoats for societal mistreatment, grave social consequences result for the targets
of stereotypes. The targets are not the only ones to suffer from stereotypes, however.
Like other kinds of mental sets, stereotypes hinder the problem-solving abilities of the
individuals who used them. These people limit their thinking by using set stereotypes.

Transfer

Often, people have particular mental sets that prompt them to fixate on one aspect of a
problem or one strategy for problem solving to the exclusion of other possible relevant
ones. They are carrying knowledge and strategies for solving one kind of problem to a
different kind of problem. Transfer is any carryover of knowledge or skills from one
problem situation to another. Transfer can be either negative or positive. Negative
transfer occurs when solving an earlier problem makes it harder to solve a later one.
Sometimes an early problem gets an individual on a wrong track. For example, police
may have difficulty solving a political crime because such a crime differs so much from
the kinds of crime that they typically deal with. Or when presented with a new tool, a
person may operate it in a way similar to the way in which he or she operated a tool with
which he or she was already familiar. Positive transfer occurs when the solution of an
earlier problem makes it easier to solve a new problem. That is, sometimes the transfer
of a mental set can be an aid to problem solving. For instance, one may transfer early
math skills, such as addition, to advanced math problems of the kinds found in algebra
or physics.

Incubation

For solving many problems, the chief obstacle is not the need to find a suitable strategy
for positive transfer. Rather, it is to avoid obstacles resulting from negative transfer.
Incubation—putting the problem aside for a while without consciously thinking about
it—offers one way in which to minimize negative transfer. It involves taking a pause from
the stages of problem solving. For example, suppose you find that you are unable to
solve a problem. None of the strategies you can think of seem to work. Try setting the
problem aside for a while to let it incubate. During incubation, you must not consciously
think about the problem. You do, however, allow for the possibility that the problem will
be processed subconsciously. Some investigators of problem solving have even
asserted that incubation is an essential stage of the problem-solving process. Others
have failed to find experimental support for the phenomenon of incubation. Incubation
seems to help because people continue to process, below consciousness, information
about a problem on which they are incubating at the same time that they are attending
to other matters.

Lecture on types of problems and problems involving transfer: