Deck 14: Solving Problems

Question 1

Some psychologists describe problem-solving as a process of searching. Which of the following is NOT part of this description?

A) the problem's initial state
B) the problem's path conflicts
C) the problem's goal state
D) the problem's operators

Answer 1

B

Question 2

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.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

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

Answer 3

C

Question 4

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 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 5

Which of the following is NOT true 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 6

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 7

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 don't understand the value of analogies, so they don't bother searching for them.
B) Participants search their memories based on the surface structure of the problem. As a result, they fail to think of analogous cases that happen to be concerned with a different topic.
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 8

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 9

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 10

A participant was given practice in solving the "jealous husbands" problem and was then tested with the "hobbits and orcs" problem. The participant, however, was unable to figure out how to map the problems onto one another. That the "hobbits and orcs" solution lies in mapping is evident in the fact that:

A) in solving the "hobbits and orcs" problem, the participant asked herself, "What else do I know about hobbits and orcs?"
B) the participant was unpersuaded that an analogy would be helpful
C) the participant was unable to think of an analogous case even though she tried to do so
D) the participant didn't realize that the rule "Orcs cannot outnumber hobbits" corresponds to the rule "Husbands cannot be left alone with other men's wives"

Question 11

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 similar problem also involving 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 12

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 13

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 14

Problem-solving protocols are:

A) moment-by-moment records of what participants say when asked to think aloud while working on a problem
B) the output from computer models programmed to simulate human problem-solving
C) procedures designed by problem-solving experts
D) reports by the participant after the problem has been solved about which strategies seemed useful and those that seemed unproductive

Question 15

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

Question 16

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 17

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 18

In order to solve a problem, people make use of operators. These are:

A) actions or tools used to help change a person's current state in relation to the problem
B) units of knowledge that a person has at the beginning of the problem
C) equivalent to a person's IQ
D) a set of constraints or limitations ruling out some solutions to the problem

Question 19

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 the participant 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 20

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 21

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

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

Question 22

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 23

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 24

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 had 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 25

A group of participants is interrupted while working on a problem. The participants then spend some time on an unrelated task, and, finally, they 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 26

An ill-defined problem is defined as 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) there is initially some uncertainty about which operators are available and which path constraints are in place

Question 27

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 28

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 memories in general
D) no memory advantage

Question 29

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 30

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 31

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 32

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 33

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 can't decide whether to go to a movie this evening or to study in the library.
D) Samantha is having trouble choosing which courses to take next semester.

Question 34

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

A) makes it easier to remember the various elements of the problem
B) highlights the organization of the problem's elements, making it easier to see the problem's structure
C) helps in the identification of subproblems and therefore in the creation of subgoals
D) draws the expert's attention to the problem's microstructure

Question 35

It was starting to rain, and Marcus didn't 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) is making the best possible use of his textbook

Question 36

People often compare experts to novices. Which of the following claims about this comparison is NOT true?

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 37

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 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

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 40

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 41

Which of the following problems would be BEST suited for creation of a mental model?

A) the book-worm problem
B) the nine-dot problem
C) the hobbits and the orcs
D) the jealous husband problem

Question 42

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

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

Question 43

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 44

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

A) Means-end 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.

Question 45

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 46

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 backwards
B) means-end analysis
C) hill-climbing
D) problem-solving set

Question 47

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

A) You should 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 memory for content related to the deep structure of the problem, not surface details.

Question 48

Smith and Blankenship gave participants problems to solve, and gave them 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 and 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 49

Two groups of participants are given sets of training problems to solve. One group of participants is told to try and 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 test?

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 50

Which of the following is NOT true of the nine-dot problem?

A) It is likely the source of the cliché, "Think outside the box."
B) People perform much better when given a hint.
C) People often suffer from a type of functional fixedness and fail to see the solution.
D) People fail to break out of their problem-solving set.

Question 51

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 "tip of the tongue" and an event at lunch cued the correct answer, which he knew all along.