Obstacles & Aids to

Problem Solving
Mental Sets, Entrenchment & Fixation

● A factor that can hinder problem-solving

● Another term is→ Entrenchment
● Solve problems with the same technique
● Involves an existing model for representing
Types of Mental Set
Functional Fixedness
● Narrow and Limited
● Inability to realize that something
known to have a particular use
may also be used for performing
other functions (German &
Barrett, 2005; Rakoczy et al.,
2009)
Stereotypes
● Aspect of→ Social Cognition
● Beliefs that members of a social
group tend more or less uniformly
to have particular types of
characteristics
● stereotype awareness, for a variety
of groups, develops in most
children between ages 6 and 10
(Mckown & Weinstein, 2003)
Negative & Positive Transfer
Carryover of knowledge or skills from one problem to
another (Detterman & Sternberg, 1993; Gentile, 2000)
 Negative Transfer
Solving an earlier problem
makes it harder to solve a
later one
Positive Transfer
Opposite of Negative Transfer
Solution of an earlier problem
makes it easier to solve a new
problem
Transfer of Analogies
e

Researchers designed some elegant studies of positive transfer involving

analogies (Gick & Holyoak, 1980, 1983). To appreciate their results, you need
to become familiar with a problem first used by Karl Duncker (1945), often
called the “radiation problem.” It is described in the Investigating Cognitive
Psychology: Problems Involving Transfer.
The Radiation Problem
*Imagine you are a doctor
treating a patient with
malignant tumor. You cannot
operate on the patient
because of the severity of the
cancer. But unless you
destroy the tumor somehow,
your patient will die.*
What will you do?
a) Use high-intensity X-rays (will also
destroy healthy tissue through which
the rays must pass)
b) Use X-rays with lesser intensity(spare
healthy tissues BUT insufficiently
powerful to destroy the tumor)
What kind of procedure could you employ that
will destroy the tumor without also destroying
the healthy tissue surrounding the tumor?
 The Military
Problem
*A general wishes to capture a
fortress in the center of a country.
There are many roads radiating
outward from the fortress. All have
been mined. Although small groups of
man can pass over the roads safely,
any large force will detonate the
mines. A full-scale direct attack is
therefore impossible.

What should the general do?

 Correspondence between the Radiation & the Military Problem
What are the commonalities between the two problems and what is an elemental strategy that can be
derived by comparing the two problems? (After Gick & Holyoak, 1983.)

The Military Problem The Radiation Problem Convergence Schema

Initial State Goal: Use army to Initial State Goal: Use rays to Initial State Goal: Use force to
capture fortress destroy tumor over-
Resources: Sufficiently powerful come central
Resources: Sufficiently large army rays target

Constraint: Unable to send entire Constraint: Unable to administer Resources: Sufficiently great force
army along one road high-intensity rays from one direction
Constraint: Unable to apply full
Solution Plan: Send small groups Solution Plan: Administer low- force along one path
along multiple roads intensity rays from multiple directions
simultaneously simultaneously Solution Plan: Apply weak forces
along multiple paths
Outcome: Fortress captured by Outcome: Tumor destroyed by rays simultaneously
army
M. L. Gick and K. J. Holyoak (1983), “Schema Induction and Analogical Transfer,” Outcome: Central Target overcome
Cognitive Psychology, Vol. 15, pp. 1–38. Reprinted by permission of Elsevier. by force
Intentional Transfer: Searching for Analogies
Analogy→ comparison of 2 Transparency
objects that emphasizes the ● People see analogies where
similarities between the two they do not exist because
*for one to find analogies of→ similarity of content
between 2 problems, one must
perceive the relationship
between them (Gentner, 1983,
2000).
 Incubation
● Attention(consciousness) is
diverted from the task at hand
and focus on something else
Neuroscience & Planning during
Problem-Solving
*Recall Chapter 2*
Frontal Lobes→ involved in high-level cognitive processes
*It is therefore not surprising that the frontal lobes and in
particular the prefrontal cortex are essential for planning for
complex problem-solving tasks (Unterrainer & Owen, 2006)
Intelligence & Complex Problem-Solving
● Mental Processes
● Used performing tasks ● Encode the ● Forming and
such as:
a) Translating sensory input
problem and implementing
into mental representation formulate strategies for the
b) Transforming one general strategy details of the
conceptual representation
for attacking task (Sternberg,
into another or translating
conceptual representation the problem 1981)
into motor output.
(Sternberg, 1982)

Components Global Planning Local Planning

Reference
Incubation. (n.d.). In Alleydog.com's online glossary. Retrieved from:
https://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition-cit.php?term=Incubation

Mental Set. (n.d.). In Alleydog.com's online glossary. Retrieved from:

https://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition-cit.php?term=Mental+Set

Functional Fixedness. (n.d.). In Alleydog.com's online glossary. Retrieved from:

https://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition-cit.php?term=Functional+Fixedness

Stereotype. (n.d.). In Alleydog.com's online glossary. Retrieved from:

https://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition-cit.php?term=Stereotype

Analogy. (n.d.). In Alleydog.com's online glossary. Retrieved from:

https://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition-cit.php?term=Analogy

Sternberg, R.J. (n.d.). Obstacles and Aids to Problem-Solving. Cognitive Psychology (sixth Edition., pp. 492-500). Belmont, CA:
Cengage Learning