Psychology 2135A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Karl Duncker, Functional Fixedness, George De Mestral

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2135A/B
• Professor: John Paul Minda

Document Summary

Problem occurs when there is an obstacle between a present state and a goal and it is not immediately obvious how to get around the obstacle. The gestalt approach: problem solving as representation and. Focus on how people represent a problem in their mind. Devised a number of problems to illustrate how solving a problem involves a restructuring of representation. Restructuring and insight: demonstrate factors that pose obstacles to problem solving. Restructuring the process of changing the problem"s representation. Fixation people"s tendency to focus on a specific characteristic of the problem that keeps: demonstrated experimentally by tracking how close people feel they are to solving. Functional fixation can work against solving a problem, focusing on familiar functions or them from arriving at a solution insight &nooninsight problems. Obstacles to problem solving uses of an object: candle problem example of functional fixedness. Asked subjects to use various objects to complete a task: two-string problem demonstration of functional fixedness.