Problem solving: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:56, 11 October 2024

Revision as of 21:53, 11 October 2024

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===Unnecessary constraints===

Unnecessary constraints are arbitrary boundaries imposed unconsciously on the task at hand, which foreclose a productive avenue of solution. The solver may become fixated on only one type of solution, as if it were an inevitable requirement of the problem.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-08-24 |title=How Your Subconscious Solves Complex Problems at Work - WorkforceWise |url=https://workforcewise.org/how-your-subconscious-solves-complex-problems-at-work/ |access-date=2024-10-11 |website=workforcewise.org |language=en-US}}</ref> Typically, this combines with mental set—clinging to a previously successful method.<ref name="Kellogg, R. T. 2003">{{cite book|last=Kellogg|first=R. T.|year=2003|title=Cognitive psychology|edition=2nd|___location=California|publisher=Sage Publications, Inc.}}</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2023}}

Visual problems can also produce mentally invented constraints.<ref>{{cite book|last=Meloy|first=J. R.|year=1998|title=The Psychology of Stalking, Clinical and Forensic Perspectives|edition=2nd|___location=London, England|publisher=Academic Press}}</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2023}} A famous example is the dot problem: nine dots arranged in a three-by-three grid pattern must be connected by drawing four straight line segments, without lifting pen from paper or backtracking along a line. The subject typically assumes the pen must stay within the outer square of dots, but the solution requires lines continuing beyond this frame, and researchers have found a 0% solution rate within a brief allotted time.<ref>{{cite journal|last2=Ormerod|first2=T.C.|last3=Chronicle|first3=E.P.|year=2001|title=Information-processing and insight: A process model of performance on the nine-dot and related problems|journal=Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition|volume=27|issue=1|pages=176–201|doi=10.1037/0278-7393.27.1.176|last1=MacGregor|first1=J.N.|pmid=11204097}}</ref>