Deck 13: Problem Solving and Intelligence

Question 1

A problem-solving heuristic is

A) guaranteed to find a problem solution, if one exists.
B) a strategy that guides a search through the problem space.
C) likely to be less effective than a strategy such as hill climbing or means-end analysis.
D) needed for unfamiliar problems but not for familiar problems.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Experts have several advantages in problem solving. Which of the following is NOT an advantage mentioned in this textbook?

A) advanced degrees
B) at least 10 years of experience
C) years of deliberate practice
D) more efficient ways of accessing their knowledge

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which of the following is NOT a benefit received from using a means-end analysis to solve a problem?

A) It highlights the differences between the current state and the goal state.
B) It often leads a person to break a problem into subproblems.
C) It provides guidelines for what a person should do to solve the problem.
D) It encourages the person to move away from the goal initially, so as to get to the goal faster.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which of the following is NOT a procedure that makes analogy use more likely?

A) Participants are given two analogous problems, rather than just one, before the test problem.
B) Participants are given financial bonuses for each one of the test problems they are able to solve.
C) Participants are given several training problems and asked to compare the problems to one another.
D) Participants are encouraged to work at understanding the solutions of the training problems so that they can explain the solutions later on.

Question 5

One plan for solving a problem would be to consider every possible option, searching for the best solution. This broad plan is

A) usually the best way to proceed for solving complicated problems.
B) more effective with ill-defined problems.
C) usually ruled out by the sheer number of possible states within the problem space.
D) often the only plan available.

Question 6

Which of the following is NOT an advantage gained by visualizing a problem via a mental image?

A) The image depicts the problem in a concrete way, and this often makes the problem easier to remember.
B) The image often makes it easy to discern how the elements of the problem are related to one another.
C) One can easily make new discoveries about the imaged form, including discoveries that involve an entirely new understanding of the form.
D) It is usually easy to rearrange the elements of an image to explore other configurations.

Question 7

Expert problem solvers

A) focus on the surface of a problem rather than on its deep structure.
B) use analogies less often than do novices.
C) tend to categorize problems in terms of their deep structure.
D) do not need to rely on mapping in their use of analogies.

Question 8

People often compare experts to novices. Which of the following claims about this comparison is FALSE?

A) Experts tend to be more-skilled problem solvers in general, so they have an advantage even with unfamiliar problems.
B) Experts have a much larger knowledge base, including a large set of exemplars on which they can draw.
C) Experts are more familiar with the higher-order patterns common in the area of expertise.
D) Expert knowledge is more heavily cross-referenced and is therefore more easily accessible.

Question 9

A problem's "initial state" refers to the

A) participant's circumstances before he or she has understood the problem.
B) actual statement of the problem.
C) knowledge and resources one possesses at the outset of the problem.
D) first goal one must move toward in solving the problem.

Question 10

Which problem-solving heuristic is most likely to involve a question such as, "What do I have available to get from my current state to my goal state?"

A) working backward
B) means-end analysis
C) hill climbing
D) problem-solving set

Question 11

In many studies, participants fail to use analogies as an aid to problem solving. Of the following, which is the most plausible explanation of this fact?

A) Participants do not understand the value of analogies, so they do not bother searching for them.
B) Participants search their memories based on the surface structure of the problem and thus fail to think of many useful analogies.
C) Participants pay too much attention to the deep structure of a problem, and so they fail to see the features that lead to analogy.
D) Participants seem unable to use analogies even when explicitly instructed to do so.

Question 12

In order to teach students to be better problem solvers, we should do all of the following EXCEPT

A) teach some of the general-purpose heuristics, such as means-end analysis or working backward.
B) teach students that it is better to memorize related problems rather than understand them.
C) provide students with experience in the relevant domains so that they will have a basis from which to draw analogies.
D) encourage students to approach their training with attention to deep structure rather than to surface details.

Question 13

All of the states one can reach in solving a problem together make up the

A) operators.
B) pathways.
C) problem definition.
D) problem space.

Question 14

In general, a training procedure will promote subsequent analogy use if the procedure

A) helps participants to remember the exact formulation of the training problems.
B) makes the value of analogy use clear to participants.
C) encourages participants to pay attention to the training problem's deep structure.
D) teaches the participants general principles about how analogies function.

Question 15

If you are trying to help a friend use analogies in problem solving, which piece of advice should you NOT give?

A) Attend to the deep structure of the problem.
B) Try to see the mapping between problems you already know and test problems.
C) Memorize as many problems as you can.
D) Search your memory for content related to the deep structure of the problem, not surface details.

Question 16

Which of the following is FALSE regarding mental images or pictures in problem solving?

A) Maintaining a mental image can be effortful and so may reduce the amount of resources available to solve a problem.
B) Mental images are more useful than pictures if a problem's solution involves movement within the image or picture.
C) Pictures are usually more helpful than mental images when searching for new discoveries or different interpretations.
D) Images are difficult to resize and so do not help if the problem's solution involves the rescaling of an image or picture.

Question 17

Participants' use of hill climbing is evident in that

A) participants solve problems more quickly if they can divide the problem into smaller subproblems.
B) problem solving often gets stalled if a problem requires all participants to move briefly away from the goal state in order (ultimately) to reach the goal.
C) participants are disrupted in their problem solving if they are asked to think out loud as they proceed.
D) participants are often confused unless the problem's path constraints are clearly specified.

Question 18

Which of the following is NOT a heuristic used in problem solving?

A) framing
B) hill climbing
C) means-end analysis
D) working backward from the goal state

Question 19

Herbert solved the "tumor" problem by using an analogy with the "general and fortress" problem. In doing this, he realized that "tumor" corresponds to "fortress," "radiation" corresponds to "attacking army," and so on. The process of determining these correspondences is called

A) translating.
B) analogizing.
C) mapping.
D) parsing.

Question 20

Two groups of participants are given sets of training problems to solve. One group of participants is told to try to understand the structure of the problem, while the other group is asked to try to memorize the problem. They are later given test problems. Based on previous evidence, what results would you expect to see at testing?

A) The "memorize" group will be faster when solving the problems.
B) The "memorize" group will solve more problems.
C) The "structure" group will solve more problems.
D) The groups will solve the same number of problems.

Question 21

Analogies are

A) often misleading, since an analogy depends on a problem's surface structure.
B) relatively ineffective for solving problems, unless the problem is a familiar one.
C) an effective way to promote understanding and problem solving.
D) relevant only for a narrow set of problems.

Question 22

Compared to novices, chess experts are more likely to have

A) better memory for the positions of pieces on a chess board if the pieces are arranged in a fashion that respects the rules of chess.
B) better memory for the positions of pieces on a chess board, no matter how the pieces are arranged.
C) better visual memory in general.
D) no memory advantage.

Question 23

The tendency to be rigid in how one thinks about an object's function is called

A) mental stickiness.
B) functional fixedness.
C) functional narrowness.
D) narrow focus.

Question 24

Eric is trying to solve a problem but must put the problem down for a lunch meeting. At the meeting, he suddenly thinks of a potential solution. Which of the following is NOT consistent with Eric's revelation?

A) Lunch provided an incubation period.
B) Lunch provided Eric time to forget his previous strategies.
C) Lunch provided Eric time to think of new tactics that were outside of his original problem-solving set.
D) Eric was suffering from something like the "tip-of-the-tongue" phenomenon, and an event at lunch cued the correct answer, which he knew all along.

Question 25

In solving a problem, participants seem to develop a certain attitude or perspective, and they then approach all subsequent problems with the same perspective. This rigidity in approach is often called

A) transfer.
B) Einstellung.
C) mental inhibition.
D) Zeitgeist.

Question 26

An ill-defined problem is one in which

A) there is more than one path available that will lead to the goal.
B) the problem does not have clearly defined subgoals.
C) neither analogies nor heuristics will lead to a problem solution.
D) the goal is not clearly characterized or the operations for reaching that goal are not clearly stated.

Question 27

Experts seem able to break a problem into meaningful chunks. This strategy provides all of the following advantages EXCEPT for

A) making it easier to remember the various elements of the problem.
B) highlighting the organization of the problem's elements, making it easier to see the problem's structure.
C) helping in the identification of subproblems and therefore in the creation of subgoals.
D) drawing the expert's attention to the problem's microstructure.

Question 28

Dell is trying to solve the "hobbits and orcs" problem, so she must determine how to move the creatures across a river. Dell is most likely to be helped if she has had earlier experience with

A) a problem with a similar deep structure that also involved hobbits and orcs.
B) a formally identical problem involving jealous husbands and their wives.
C) other problems involving transportation across obstacles.
D) problems illustrating the techniques for dealing with river currents.

Question 29

Which of the following statements about creative people is most correct?

A) Creative people are fundamentally different from other people.
B) Creative people have a cognitive architecture that is unlike the architecture for less creative people.
C) Creative people typically rely on the same strategies and processes as less creative people.
D) Creativity is typically associated with superior visual memory.

Question 30

Experts have an advantage in problem solving and remembering certain information (like the position of chess pieces) for all of the following reasons EXCEPT that they

A) think of units that can be used to set subgoals.
B) create higher-order units that have a purpose.
C) avoid getting bogged down in the details by organizing the information.
D) break down chunks to create subgoals.

Question 31

Bob works in marketing and wants to be creative at his work. Which of these is LEAST likely to be a prerequisite for his creativity?

A) having knowledge about his domain in marketing
B) being strongly motivated by external rewards rather than taking pleasure in his work
C) being able to ignore criticism and tolerate ambiguous findings
D) being willing to take risks and not follow the crowd

Question 32

A group of participants has just completed a series of problems involving water jars. In each problem, the participants needed to fill the largest jar, pour from it once into the middle-sized jar, and then pour from the largest jar twice into the smallest jar. The participants are now given a new problem, which cannot be solved via this procedure. We would expect that the participants will

A) quickly solve the new problem because they have had practice with a series of very similar problems.
B) have difficulty with the new problem because they are now locked into the procedure they used successfully.
C) behave just as participants who have no experience with water jar problems; that is, there will be no effect of the prior training.
D) try their already practiced procedure and, once they realize this procedure does not help them, they will show no effect of the prior training.

Question 33

According to the text, current research indicates that creative problem solving

A) draws on mental processes that are distinct from the processes relevant to more ordinary problem solving.
B) depends on divergent thinking.
C) draws on heuristics and analogies in the same way as does ordinary problem solving.
D) requires unconscious work that goes on after one has consciously put the problem to the side.

Question 34

Which of the following problems is ill-defined?

A) Sarah is trying to think of a way to impress her boss.
B) Susan is trying to decide which route to take to the soccer game.
C) Sheila cannot decide whether to go to a movie this evening or study in the library.
D) Samantha is having trouble choosing which courses to take next semester.

Question 35

Participants approach a problem with certain assumptions about how the problem should be handled and the sorts of strategies that are likely to be productive. These assumptions are referred to as

A) functional fixedness.
B) well-definedness.
C) a problem frame.
D) a problem-solving set.

Question 36

It was starting to rain and Marcus did not have an umbrella or a hat. To keep dry, he held his psychology textbook over his head. In this case, Marcus

A) is showing the influence of Einstellung.
B) has solved the problem by using functional fixedness.
C) has managed to overcome functional fixedness.
D) has failed the hobbits and orcs problem.

Question 37

The environment seems to influence all of the following EXCEPT

A) creativity.
B) IQ scores.
C) the use of heuristics.
D) fluid intelligence.

Question 38

A problem-solving set

A) is generally a deterrent to problem solving, so one should seek to approach a problem without a set.
B) is an obstacle for novice problem solvers but not for experts.
C) is crucial for well-defined problems but cannot help with ill-defined problems.
D) often helps because the set leads us to ignore a number of options that obviously will not lead to the goal.

Question 39

One way to turn an ill-defined question into a well-defined question is to

A) add extra constraints or assumptions to the problem so that it has more structure.
B) make the question less specific.
C) make the question rhetorical.
D) remove any clear or concrete goal state from the problem.

Question 40

Studies of analogy use indicate that participants

A) use analogies spontaneously in a wide range of problems.
B) use analogies only if they are experts in the domain of the problem.
C) are more likely to use analogies if there is a superficial resemblance between the problem being solved and the problem serving as the base for the analogy.
D) are more likely to use analogies in solving spatial problems than they are in solving verbal problems.

Question 41

How does Einstellung contribute to problem solving? How can it facilitate problem solving? How may it hinder problem solving?

Question 42

Many years ago, Wallas argued that creative thought proceeds through four stages. Which of the following is NOT one of these stages?

A) illumination
B) articulation
C) preparation
D) incubation

Question 43

Blair is female and Alex is male. Which of the following statements about their IQs is most likely to be true?

A) Blair has a much higher IQ than Alex.
B) Alex has a much higher IQ than Blair.
C) Blair and Alex are likely to have similar IQs; however, Blair will likely score higher on verbal tests of intelligence.
D) Blair and Alex are likely to have similar IQs; however, Blair will likely score higher on visuospatial tests of intelligence.

Question 44

Researchers have tried to study the moment of illumination in the laboratory. The evidence indicates that

A) this experience cannot be observed reliably in laboratory conditions.
B) there is no systematic relationship between reports of illumination and actual progress in problem solving.
C) when participants report an illumination, they are at least as likely to be moving toward a dead end as they are to be moving toward the problem's solution.
D) when participants report an illumination, they have, in fact, made a discovery that will allow them to solve the problem.

Question 45

Which of the following is NOT an explanation that is supported by evidence for the IQ discrepancies between blacks and whites?

A) Genetic factors cause whites to be more intelligent than blacks.
B) Economic factors lead to higher IQ scores among whites than blacks.
C) Stereotype threat causes black students to score lower on intelligence tests.
D) IQ scores among blacks can be improved by reducing stereotype threat.

Question 46

Smith and Blankenship gave participants problems to solve and provided clues. One group was forced to take a break after only 60 seconds of working on the problem. After a 30-second break, they were given another 30 seconds to try to solve the problem. Compared to the group that did not get the break, the incubation group

A) performed worse on the problem-solving task.
B) remembered more of the clues.
C) remembered fewer clues.
D) solved the problems faster.

Question 47

Mark scored very well on a verbal intelligence test. How is he likely to score on a visuospatial test of intelligence?

A) He will score below average on the visuospatial test.
B) He will score above average on the visuospatial test.
C) One cannot assume how he will score because there is no correlation between general and specialized intelligence.
D) He will score similarly if he takes the test today, but his score will be very different if he takes the test in a few months.

Question 48

________ intelligence refers to a general flexibility of thought, while ________ intelligence refers to acquired knowledge and skills.

A) General; specific
B) Crystallized; fluid
C) Fluid; crystallized
D) General; learned

Question 49

In some procedures, participants are helped by an interruption during their attempts at solving a problem. In explaining this effect, which of the following hypotheses seems LEAST plausible in light of the available evidence?

A) The interruption provides an opportunity for participants to gather further information about the problem.
B) The interruption provides an opportunity for frustration or fatigue to dissipate.
C) The interruption allows participants to forget their earlier approaches to the problem, thus enabling a fresh start.
D) The interruption allows an opportunity for unconscious problem solving to occur.

Question 50

As Vanessa worked on the problem, she reported out loud, "No, that option doesn't seem to work. No, that doesn't work either." Then Vanessa abruptly shouted, "I think I've got it!" These reports seem to capture the phenomenon called

A) illumination.
B) incubation.
C) preparation.
D) representation.

Question 51

Dr. Smarts is giving a test to a few students in his class. The test is very simple: he presents two objects and asks the students to reply as quickly as possible if they match (yes or no). Student 1 replies faster than Student 2. What does this indicate about the students' intelligence levels?

A) Student 2 is more intelligent than Student 1.
B) Student 1 is more intelligent than Student 2.
C) Both students are likely to have above average intelligence.
D) Reaction time on this task is not correlated with intelligence.

Question 52

Your friends sets a New Year's resolution to "be happier." Although this is a great goal, it could be hard to achieve. Using the appropriate terminology, explain what kind of problem this is, and how she should go about solving it.

Question 53

Melissa is a 35-year-old woman. Over the next few decades, her ________ intelligence will likely increase, while her ________ intelligence will likely decrease.

A) crystallized; memory
B) crystallized; fluid
C) fluid; crystallized
D) reasoning ability; vocabulary

Question 54

Which of the following would NOT be a reason to use Ravens Progressive Matrices instead of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale to measure the intelligence of an individual?

A) The participant is not a native English speaker.
B) The participant was not raised in the United States of America.
C) The participant has a verbal disability.
D) The participant has never taken an intelligence test before.

Question 55

Describe the stages of creativity. Include experimental evidence that supports the incubation and illumination stages of this process.

Question 56

Which of the following statements does NOT support the notion that the environment influences intelligence?

A) IQs are more similar among brothers who are close in age than brothers who are very different in age.
B) IQs are more similar among monozygotic twins than among dizygotic twins.
C) IQs are lower overall among children who come from impoverished environments.
D) Changing the environment can lead to an improvement in IQ score.

Question 57

Describe two of the strategies for problem solving that were included in the chapter. Next, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each approach.

Question 58

According to Wallas's theory of creativity, the initial period in which a problem solver gathers information is known as

A) verification.
B) incubation.
C) preparation.
D) initialization.

Question 59

Differentiate between the fluid and crystallized types of intelligence. How does intelligence change across the lifetime? What factors influence each type of intelligence?

Question 60

A group of participants is interrupted while working on a problem. The participants then spend some time on an unrelated task and, finally, return to the initial problem. Studies of this sort show that the

A) participants will benefit from the interruption and are more likely to solve the problem when they return to it.
B) participants will be disrupted by the interruption and are less likely to solve the problem when they return to it.
C) participants will not be affected by the interruption.
D) data are mixed, with some studies showing a benefit from the interruption but with many studies showing no effect.

Question 61

How are experts different from novices, when it comes to solving problems? How might expertise help with problem solving, and how might it hurt?

Question 62

Bob and John are monozygotic twins. Jackson and Lucas are dizygotic twins. Describe how these two sets of twins vary in terms of genetics, development, and, finally, intelligence.

Question 63

Consider the examples of autistic savants that were described at the beginning of the chapter. Given what you know now, how would you characterize their intellectual abilities? Make sure you use the appropriate terminology in your answer.

Question 64

Explain the methodological concerns with measuring intelligence. What should you do to ensure that a given measure of intelligence is appropriate and accurate?

Question 65

Describe the genetic and environmental factors that influence intelligence. Is one factor more important than the other? Why?