Chapter 2 – Problem solving

These are situations in which you have a goal, but you do not immediately know what you need to do to achieve it.

A mental process that involves the exploration of possible states of the world and possible actions. This mental process may often be supported by interactions with external materials, objects and representations.

A person’s sudden sense of understanding of how to go about solving a problem for which they have been struggling to find a solution. Such insight is sometimes referred to as an “Aha!” experience.

These are problems in which the initial state (the starting conditions), the goal state and the actions that are available to tackle the problem are all completely specified.

These are problems in which there is a lack of specificity about one or more of the initial state (the starting conditions), the goal state and the actions that are available to tackle the problem.

These are problems that require specialist, prior domain knowledge for people to be able to solve them.

These are problems such as puzzles that do not require specialist, prior domain knowledge for people to be able to solve them. All of the knowledge needed to solve these problems is presented as part of the problem statement.

These are problems in which the problem solver has to compete with a rational opponent, as in board games where the aim is for one player to win.

This usually involves a person changing their mental representation of a given problem. This representational change that restructures a problem can reveal a new understanding of the problem that can engender a sudden feeling of insight that a solution can readily be found.

The experience of feeling stuck or blocked when trying to solve a problem and not knowing how to proceed to find a solution.

A difficulty in thinking of a novel way to use an object that is different to its usual function.

A period during which a problem is set aside. This may arise immediately after the person sees the problem or subsequent to the person spending some time trying to solve the problem but without success.

A form of long-term memory that consists of one’s interconnected general knowledge about the world, including concepts and words that make up language.

A technique for providing information about the location and time-course of brain processes based on imaging blood oxygenation levels using an MRI machine.

A technique for recording the brain’s electrical potentials using an array of scalp electrodes.

Thinking that involves the systematic re-use of past experience and existing knowledge.

A process involving a comparison between two entities, objects, systems or problems that serves to identify similarities.

Rules of thumb that are undemanding of cognitive resources and that often succeed in producing answers that are correct or approximately correct.

An abstract mental representation of a problem and possible solution states.

The process of imagining an action sequence in advance of any physical, goal-directed activity.

Problem-solving methods that are guaranteed to succeed but may do so only at a very high cost in terms of the time and information-processing effort required.

Computer programs that can produce intelligent outcomes to attain specified goals.

A heuristic for solving problems that involves generating a sub-goal to reduce the difference between the current state and the goal state.

A heuristic that functions like means-ends analysis to ensure that any move or decision enables as much progress to be made as possible toward the current goal state.

A heuristic whereby during problem solving people continually track their degree of progress toward the goal state and will switch their approach if insufficient progress toward the goal is being made.

A measure of how much information a person can store and process at any point in time.

Rapid eye movements that are separated by eye fixations that arise when the eye is relatively still at a point-of-regard. Conscious awareness is suppressed during saccades.

Problems that have the same underlying structure to one another but different surface characteristics.

Generalised, abstracted representations of problems and associated solution methods that are stored in long-term memory, which can be applied to solve a class of problems that have similar underpinning structures.