Common barriers to problem solving: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:40, 9 May 2012

Revision as of 16:47, 9 May 2012

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information would serve no purpose in helping solve that particular problem. Often times

''irrelevant information'' is detrimental to the problem solving process. It is a common barrier

that many people have trouble getting through, especially if they are not aware of it. ''Irrelevant information'' makes solving otherwise relatively simple problems, much harder.<ref>Walinga, Jennifer. (2010). From walls to windows: Using barriers as pathways to insightful solutions. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 44, 143-167. doi: 10.1002/j.2162- 6057.2010.tb01331.x</ref>

For example:

Fifteen percent of the people in Topeka have unlisted telephone numbers. You select 200

names at random from the Topeka phone book. How many of these people have unlisted phone

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selected.

The individual looking at this task would naturally want to use the 15% given to them in the problem. They see that there is information present and they immediately think that it needs to be used. This of course is not true. These kinds of questions are often used to test students taking aptitude tests or cognitive evaluations.<ref>Walinga, Jennifer, Cunningham, J. Barton, & MacGregor, James N. (2011). Training insight problem solving through focus on barriers and assumptions. The Journal of Creative Behavior.</ref> They aren’t meant to be difficult but they are meant to require thinking that is not

The individual looking at this task would naturally, want to use the 15% given to them in the problem. They see that there

is information present and they immediately think that it needs to be used. This of course is not

true. These kinds of questions are often used to test students taking aptitude tests or cognitive

evaluations.<ref>Walinga, Jennifer, Cunningham, J. Barton, & MacGregor, James N. (2011). Training insight problem solving through focus on barriers and assumptions. The Journal of Creative Behavior.</ref> They aren’t meant to be difficult but they are meant to require thinking that is not

necessarily common. ''Irrelevant Information'' is commonly represented in math problems, word problems

specifically, were numerical information is put for the purpose of challenging the individual.

One reason ''Irrelevant Information'' is so effective at keeping a person off topic and away from the relevant information, is in how it is represented.<ref>Walinga, Jennifer, Cunningham, J. Barton, & MacGregor, James N. (2011). Training insight problem solving through focus on barriers and assumptions. The Journal of Creative Behavior.</ref> The way information is represented can make a vast

difference in how difficult the problem is to be overcome. Whether a problem is represented

information, is in how it is represented.<ref>Walinga, Jennifer, Cunningham, J. Barton, & MacGregor, James N. (2011). Training insight problem solving through focus on barriers and assumptions. The Journal of Creative Behavior.</ref> The way information is represented can make a vast

visually, verbally, spatially, or mathematically, irrelevant information can have a profound effect on how long a problem takes to be solved; or if it’s even possible. The Buddhist monk problem is a classic example of ''Irrelevant Information'' and how it can be represented in different ways:

difference in how difficult the problem is to overcome. Whether a problem is represented

visually, verbally, spatially, or mathematically, they can have a profound effect on how long a

problem takes to solve; or if it’s even possible. The Buddhist monk problem is a classic example

of ''Irrelevant Information'' and how it can be represented in differing ways:

''A Buddhist monk begins at dawn one day walking up a mountain, reaches the top at

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This problem is near impossible to solve because of how the information is represented.

Because it is written out in a way that represents the information verbally, it causes us to try and

create a mental image of the paragraph. This is often very difficult to do especially with all the ''Irrelevant Information '' involved in the question. This example is made much easier to understand when the paragraph is

involved in the question. This example is made much easier to understand when the paragraph is

represented visually.

Now if the same problem was asked, but it was also accompanied by a corresponding graph above, it would be far easier to answer this question; ''Irrelevant Information'' no longer becomesserves as a road block. By representing the problem visually, there are no difficult words to understand or scenarios to imagine. The visual representation of this problem has removed the difficulty of solving it.

Now if the same problem was asked, but it was also accompanied by a

corresponding graph above, it would be far easier to answer this question; ''Irrelevant Information'' no longer becomes a road block. By representing the problem visually, there are no difficult

words to understand or scenarios to imagine. The visual representation of this problem has removed the difficulty of solving it.

These types of representations are often used to make difficult problems easier.<ref>Vlamings, Petra H. J. M., Hare, Brian, & Call, Joseph. Reaching around barriers: The performance of great apes and 3-5-year-old children. Animal Cognition, 13, 273-285. doi: 10.1007/s10071-009-0265-5</ref> They can

be a strategy used to on tests to remove ''Irrelevant Information'' This

is one of the most common forms of barriers when discussing the issues of problem solving.<ref>Kellogg, R. T. (2003). Cognitive psychology (2nd ed.). California: Sage Publications, Inc.</ref>

Identifying crucial information presented in a problem and then being able to correctly identify it'sits usefulness is essential. Being aware of ''Irrelevant Information'' is the first step in overcoming this common barrier.

==References==