Students Asked to Solve the "Tumor Problem" After Exposure to the "Fortress

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--The salience of surface features distracted students from realizing the underlying similarities of the two problems.Salience refers to how attention-grabbing something is.We tend to focus our attention on the surface-level (superficial)properties of a problem,such as the topic of an algebra word problem,and try to solve problems the same way we solved problems that exhibited similar surface characteristics.When one algebra word problem calls for subtraction and another calls for division,the fact that both deal with trains isn't going to help us.Ignoring the surface features of a problem and focusing on the underlying reasoning needed to solve it can be challenging.
--Imagine learning about two problems.In one problem,a general wants to capture a fortress but realizes that taking all his forces down a single path makes them vulnerable to attack,so he divides the forces up into many smaller units who each attack along a different path.By surrounding the fortress along many paths,the fortress is taken without significant loss of troops.In the second problem,a doctor is attempting to treat a stomach tumor by use of a laser but realizes that sending the full-intensity beam required to destroy the tumor will damage the healthy tissue in its path.Can you think of a solution that destroys the tumor but protects the healthy tissue? Hint: The second problem involves the same reasoning process as the first.Did you realize that the same solution-sending lots of low-intensity beams in from lots of directions-would work for the tumor problem? In one study,only 20 percent of students who saw the fortress problem figured out the tumor problem (Gick & Holyoak,1983).But when researchers told students that the fortress problem could help them solve the tumor problem,their success shot up to 92 percent.The students hadn't noticed that the fortress solution was relevant.

Students Asked to Solve the "Tumor Problem" After Exposure to the "Fortress

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Students Asked to Solve the "Tumor Problem" After Exposure to the "Fortress

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