Deck 12: Problem Solving and Expertise

Question 1

Bowden et al. (2005) presented participants with three cue words (e.g., "fence", "card" and "master"), and participants would have to think of a word (e.g., "post"). A problem such as this is referred to as:

A) Surface matching
B) Forced choice recognition
C) Remote Associates Test
D) Deese-Roediger-McDermott
E) Lexical decision

Answer 1

Remote Associates Test

Question 2

Duncker's (1945) study on human problem solving demonstrated the notion of:

A) Operant conditioning
B) Wanderlust
C) "Aha!" experiences
D) Mental set
E) Eureka moments

Answer 2

Mental set

Question 3

Failing to solve problems, because one assumes from past experience that a given object has only a limited number of familiar uses, has been called:

A) Stubborn rationality
B) Rigid logic
C) Functional fixedness
D) Change-proclivity
E) Representational change

Answer 3

Functional fixedness

Question 4

Problem solving that involves the reuse of previous experiences has been termed:

A) Productive thinking
B) Reproductive thinking
C) Insight
D) Trial-and-error learning
E) Deductive reasoning

Question 5

Which of the following tasks requires one to keep one's pen on the paper at all times while drawing lines?

A) Pendulum problem
B) Nine-dot problem
C) Line bisection task
D) Tower of Hanoi
E) Tower of London

Question 6

Which of the following is an aspect of deliberate practice?

A) The task is at an appropriate level of difficulty
B) The learner is provided with informative feedback
C) The learner has sufficient opportunities for repetition
D) It is possible for the learner to correct his/her errors
E) All of the above

Question 7

Gobet used the what term to describe a schematic structure that is more general than an actual board position?

A) Chunk
B) Template
C) Script
D) Prototype
E) Model

Question 8

People perform poorly on the Monty Hall problem. Their poor level of performance is due to ______?

A) Equiprobability bias
B) Heavy demands on the central executive system
C) The host's actions are random
D) It's very hard to understand the problem itself
E) All of the above

Question 9

According to Newell and Simon (1972), an important heuristic that involves changing the present state within the problem to one closer to the goal is called:

A) Means-end analysis
B) Shaping
C) Automaticity
D) Goal reduplication
E) Hill climbing

Question 10

There is overlap between the notion of cognitive miser and Newell and Simons' (1972) focus on problem solvers' use of heuristics. Newell and Simon assumed our limited processing capacity does what to us to use heuristics?

A) Limited processing capacity forces us to use heuristics
B) Limited processing capacity makes us ignore the use of heuristics
C) Limited processing capacity combines new heuristics with old ones
D) Limited processing capacity makes us reluctant to use heuristics
E) Limited processing capacity makes us replace heuristics

Question 11

Ohlsson's (1992) view that problems can be solved by altering the representation, shares similarities with which Gestalt notion?

A) Insight
B) Restructuring
C) Law of common effects
D) Continuity
E) Law of Prägnanz

Question 12

Newell and Simon (1972) included the initial stage of the problem, the goal state, all of the possible moves and intermediate states of the problem, in what they deemed the:

A) Complexity algorithm
B) Peg-constraints
C) Mental model
D) Operation span
E) Problem space

Question 13

Wallas (1926) suggested that a problem can often be solved more easily by simply ignoring it for some time, during what he called:

A) Incubation
B) The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
C) Unblocking
D) Refractory period
E) Conscious reinterpretation

Question 14

According to Chen (2002), a current problem may be similar to a previous one because causal relations among some of the main components are shared by both problems. This is termed:

A) Superficial similarity
B) Deep similarity
C) Procedural similarity
D) Structural similarity
E) Causal similarity

Question 15

According to Ohlsson (1992), changing the representation of a problem, so that restrictions on what is regarded as possible are removed, is termed:

A) Elaboration
B) Re-encoding
C) Impasse-breakage
D) Disinhibition
E) Constraint relaxation

Question 16

Most research on expertise has made use of:

A) Impossible problems
B) Well-defined problems
C) Ill-defined problems
D) Knowledge-lean problems
E) Knowledge-rich problems

Question 17

Dagher et al. (1999) used various levels of complexity in the Tower of London problem. They found that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was most associated with which process?

A) Negative feedback
B) Reward
C) Emotional reasoning
D) Plan executive
E) Plan generation

Question 18

Which of the following is NOT one of the three specified major aspects to problem solving?

A) It is time limited
B) It is purposeful
C) It involves controlled processes
D) It is not totally reliant on automatic processes
E) The person must have the knowledge to produce an immediate solution

Question 19

Which computer program, designed to solve numerous well-defined problems, is credited to Newell and Simon (1972)?

A) Space Invaders
B) WEAVER++
C) ACT-R
D) General Problem Solver
E) Problem Space Delimiter

Question 20

If chess experts use long-term working memory to learn the positions of chess pieces on a board, what do novices rely on?

A) Short-term memory
B) Declarative memory
C) Working memory
D) Epsiodic memory
E) Geographical memory

Question 21

System codes are:

A) Systems codes
B) Computational methods that produce solutions
C) Computational methods that provide strategies for problem solving
D) Artifical intelligence
E) Heuristics

Question 22

How do medical experts' strategies differ from those of non-experts?

A) Years of experience
B) Application of knowledge is different
C) Detection and recognition
D) Global perception
E) Holistic perception

Question 23

When is hill climbing used?

A) Problem solver has no clear understanding
B) Problem solver has too much insight
C) The problem is in multiple parts
D) Problem solver has short-term goals
E) Problem solver feels trapped