Academic Study of Problem Solving and Thinking Related to Everyday Life
Academic study of problem solving and thinking related to everyday life
Every day individuals are faced with many different problems for example deciding what to wear, finding a suitable place to park your car or even completing an assignment. Whatever the problem is, ‘problem solving is defined as any goal-directed sequence of cognitive operations’, as suggested by Anderson (1980, p.257).
There has been a vast amount of research on human problem solving which has provided a better understanding of the processes involved in problem solving. An evaluation of a range of theories related to human problem solving and thinking will be introduced such as information theory, transfer of learning and Gestalt theory and critiqued with examples of everyday life; with the main thesis being to understand problem solving relies on previous experience and knowledge of a problem.
The first topic to be introduced is the information processing theory. It was first introduced by Newell and Simon (1972; cited in Anderson, 1993, p.35) it provided a better understanding of human problem solving in everyday life. Information processing theory proposes that in order to solve a problem, the problem solver must process the information that is available to them i.e. what the problem is and what is required in order to solve the problem. It is thought that problems contain initial state; what the problem is, the goal; what is the outcome of the problem you want to achieve and the operators; what is required or the steps used to achieve the goal. For instance, a student has a problem which is they have 3 assignments due in the same month which is the initial state the goal would be to hand all the assignments in on time and the operators would be delegating time to each assignment accordingly to be able to achieve the goal. However there is also an aspect of the environment that needs to be considered known as the operator restrictions, such as in the example above there may be factors
Every day individuals are faced with many different problems for example deciding what to wear, finding a suitable place to park your car or even completing an assignment. Whatever the problem is, ‘problem solving is defined as any goal-directed sequence of cognitive operations’, as suggested by Anderson (1980, p.257).
There has been a vast amount of research on human problem solving which has provided a better understanding of the processes involved in problem solving. An evaluation of a range of theories related to human problem solving and thinking will be introduced such as information theory, transfer of learning and Gestalt theory and critiqued with examples of everyday life; with the main thesis being to understand problem solving relies on previous experience and knowledge of a problem.
The first topic to be introduced is the information processing theory. It was first introduced by Newell and Simon (1972; cited in Anderson, 1993, p.35) it provided a better understanding of human problem solving in everyday life. Information processing theory proposes that in order to solve a problem, the problem solver must process the information that is available to them i.e. what the problem is and what is required in order to solve the problem. It is thought that problems contain initial state; what the problem is, the goal; what is the outcome of the problem you want to achieve and the operators; what is required or the steps used to achieve the goal. For instance, a student has a problem which is they have 3 assignments due in the same month which is the initial state the goal would be to hand all the assignments in on time and the operators would be delegating time to each assignment accordingly to be able to achieve the goal. However there is also an aspect of the environment that needs to be considered known as the operator restrictions, such as in the example above there may be factors
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