Outline (6/22/98)
Problem Solving
• Well defined and ill defined problems
• Problem typology
 - Problems of inducing structure
 - Problems of transformation
 - Problems of Arrangement
• The Gestaltist Approach to Problem Solving
    - Wallas’ (1926) stages of thinking
 > Preparation & incubation
  -> Silviera (1972): The four chains problem
 > Importance of representation
  -> The checkerboard problem solved.
  -> O,T,T,F,F,S,S,E,N,T,... solved
  -> Duncker (1945) and Functional Fixedness
   - The candle problem
 > Insight (illumination) and creativity
  -> Productive and reproductive thinking
   - Katona (1940) and match stick problems
   - The nine dots problem solved
  -> Insight and noninsight problems
   - ill defined and well defined, revisited
   - Examples of insight problems
   - Metcalf & Wiebe’s (1987) analysis
 > Verification
• Problem Solving: Newell & Simon’s contribution
    > Objectives and Method
 - Verbal protocols and computer simulation
 - Task environment and problem space
  -> Problem States and Problem Operators
  -> Problem space size and problem complexity
   - Subgoals: “Hobbits and Orcs” solved
    > Algorithms and Heuristics
 - Random and systematic random search
 - Examples of Heuristics
  1) Hill Climbing
  2) Means-Ends Analysis
  3) Working Backwards
   -> The card game problem solved
  4) Analogy: Glick & Holyoak (1983)
   -> The radiation problem
    > Methods of representing a problem
 - Symbols
 - Matrices
 - Hierarchical Tree diagrams
 - Graphs: The Buddhist Monk problem solved