Joe, wearing a mask and carrying an empty sack, leaves his house. He

returns an hour later with a full sack. He goes into a room and turns out the

light.

Joe is a kid who goes trick-or-treating for Halloween, returns,

and goes to sleep.

A man lives on the twelfth floor of an apartment building. Every morning he

takes the elevator down to the lobby and leave the building. In the evening, he gets into the elevator, and, if there is someone else in the elevator – or if it was raining

that day – he goes back to his floor directly. Otherwise, he goes to the tenth floor and

walks up two flights of stairs to his apartment.

The man is a dwarf. He can't reach the upper elevator buttons, but he can ask people to push them for him. He can also push them with his

umbrella.

Thinking and Problem Solving

Chapter 3

Units of ThoughtImage

Mental representation of a specific event or object

Ex: Dog

Symbol Sound or design that

represents an object Ex: Biohazard

Concept Symbol used as a label

for objects of events Ex: Animals

Rule Statement of a relationship

between objects Ex: What goes up, must

come down

Kinds of ThinkingDirected Thinking

Convergent thinking Systematic and logical

attempt Solution of a problem Depends on symbols,

concepts, and rules Ex: Sherlock Holmes

Nondirected Thinking Divergent thinking Free flow of thoughts No particular goal or plan Full of day dreams,

fantasies, and reveries Ex: Ideas you get in the

shower

Metacognition Thinking about thinking Reevaluating strategies

to develop new ones Knowing that mnemonic

device work Ex: After a test, thinking

about why you got the grade that you did to make a plan for the next test

Problem Solving Strategies

Depends on use of specific methods for approaching problems

Breaking down complex problems Ex: prioritizing tasks

Working backwards from a goal you have Ex: writing a mystery novel

Examine various ways to reach a goal Ex: Planning a trip

Problem SolvingSets

Useful strategies become cemented into problem-solving process

Particular strategy becomes a habit

“Set” to treat problems in a certain way

Rigidity Set involves with

problem solving Functional fixedness:

inability to imagine new functions

Wrong assumptions Less likely to occur

with unusual problems

Creativity Ability to use information in a way that is

new, original, and meaningful All problem solving requires creativity Unable to explain why some people are

more creative than others

Flexibility Ability to overcome

rigidity Numerous tests to

attempt to quantify flexibility

Inflexible, rigid thinking leads to unoriginal solutions.

Recombination Elements of the

problem are familiar Solution is not Recombination: new

mental arrangement of the elements

Ex: football plays are recombinations of old moves

Insight Sudden emergence

of a solution by recombination

Task/problem is abandoned

Person absorbed in some other activity, answer appears out of no where