Psychology 3130A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Problem Solving, Hill Climbing, Spreading Activation

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 3130A/B
• Professor: Mark Holden

Document Summary

Features or aspects that define them as problems. Problem state a gap or barrier between the current state and some goal state. Not all problems have these features, and in some cases the degree to which these components are either explicitly or implicitly designated can affect the difficulty and complexity of the problem. Givens a given is an aspect, condition and/or constraint that the problem solver must deal with when solving the problem. It places constraints on the possible solutions and how the problem is solved. These may help or hurt the solving of the problem. Givens can be explicit or implicit in nature. The obstacles are the things that interfere with a direct path between the current state and the goal state. Sometimes the impact of an obstacle can be reduced or almost eliminated when the problem solver is very familiar (expert) with the problem context.