PSYCH 3312 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: General Problem Solver, Problem Solving
17 Feb 2018
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Document Summary
Problem solving is central to our cognitive activities. Questions of definition: problems, problem solving, and creative thinking. Problem = you are in a situation you don"t want to be in and you don"t immediately know how to change the situation to a satisfactory one. Problem state operators/moves goal state. They produce creative thinking bc the problem has never been seen before. Well-defined problem ex = the tower of hanoi. Ill-defined = multiple ways to solve a problem. Representation = one"s understanding of a problem. The info-processing theory of problem solving: searching problem spaces. Problem space = the set of all possible paths through a problem - solutions and nonsolutions. Algorithm = a set of operations that will always produce the correct solution. When a problem space is too large to use an algorithm, you can employ heuristics. Hill climbing = compare the current state and the goal state, and pick an operator that makes progress towards the goal.
