The 

Candle Problem was posthumously published by Karl Duncker in 1945. Though seemingly

straightforward, this cognitive performance test has a little trick up its sleeve. Let's just say this
logic puzzle requires some out-of-the-box thinking. Read on to see the problem and solution,
and to learn more of the history behind this famous problem.

Here's the Problem

You're in a room with a table pushed against the wall. On it is a box of thumbtacks, matches,
and a candle. You must attach the lit candle to
the wall in a way that the wax won't drip onto
the table or floor. How do you complete this
task?

When you're ready, scroll down to see the

answer.

The Solution and the History

To complete this silly task, you can take the tacks out of their box, tack the box onto the wall,
and place the lit candle inside the box. Ta-da! Did you solve it?

Duncker noted that this problem requires participants to overcome their tendency for
"functional fixedness." He described that as a "mental block against using an object in a new
way that is required to solve a problem." In this problem, the tack box is key. Participants had a
hard time seeing the box in any way other than a thing containing tacks. A variation of this
problem had the tacks presented to the participants outside the box, and the participants were
much more likely to figure out the tack-box-to-wall strategy. The moral of Duncker's research?
Think outside the box, literally, and don't be too tied to the usual functions of familiar objects.

On problem-solving.
© Request Permissions
Duncker, Karl,Lees, Lynne S. (Trans)
Psychological Monographs, Vol 58(5), 1945, i-113
To study productive thinking where it is most conspicuous in great achievements is certainly a
temptation, and without a doubt, important information about the genesis of productive thought
could be found in biographical material. A problem arises when a living creature has a goal but
does not know how this goal is to be reached. Whenever one cannot go from the given situation
to the desired situation simply by action, then there has to be recourse to thinking. The subjects
(Ss), who were mostly students of universities or of colleges, were given various thinking
problems, with the request that they think aloud. This instruction, "Think aloud", is not
identical with the instruction to introspect which has been common in experiments on thought-
processes. While the introspecter makes himself as thinking the object of his attention, the
subject who is thinking aloud remains immediately directed to the problem, so to speak
allowing his activity to become verbal. It is the shift of function of the components of a
complex mathematical pattern—a shift which must so often occur if a certain structure is to be
recognized in a given pattern—it is this restructuration, more precisely: this transformation of
function within a system, which causes more or less difficulty for thinking, as one individual or
another tries to find a mathematical proof. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all
rights reserved)