Psychology 3130A/B Chapter 10: Problem Solving

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

Document Summary

Problem: the thing that interferes with achieving your goal. Problem: gap or barrier b/w current state and goal state. Something that impedes progression from current to goal state. Givens: aspect, condition, constraint that problem solver must deal with when solving problem. May help or hurt solving problem but aren"t considered as the gap that it the problem itself. Can be explicit or implicit in nature. Needing to drive is an implicit given since it wasn"t explicitly in the original problem. Explicit givens in scenario of cooking show would be the food, cooking equipment, etc. Obstacles: interfere with direct path b/w current state and goal state. On the cooking show, obstacle would be time frame, cooking with new ingredients. Impact of obstacle can be reduced or almost eliminated when problem solver is very familiar with problem context. Are the operations that are used to change original state and to move closer to the goal state.