Thinking
Let's view thinking as changing and reorganizing the information stored in memory to create new or transformed information.
By thinking, humans are able to put together any combination of words from memory and create sentences never before devised.
Units of Thought
The process of thought depends on several devices or units of thought: images, symbols, concepts, prototypes, and rules.
The most primitive unit of thought is an image, a visual/mental representation of a specific event or object.
For example when an adult tries to remember his grandfather who died 15 years ago may only be able to remember his hair color or favorite gun.
A more abstract unit of thought is a symbol, which is a sound, an object, or a design that represents an object or quality.
The most common symbols in thinking are words; almost every word is a symbol that stands for something other than itself.
Symbols include letters, numbers, punctuation marks and icons.
A B C 1 2 3 ! ?
When a symbol is used as a label for a class of objects or events with at least one common attribute-or for the attribute itself-it is called a concept.
Concepts enable us to chunk large amounts of information. Examples are animals and automobiles.
When we think of a concept, we often think of a representative sample of it. When you think of a vehicle, for example, you might picture a car or a truck.
This representation is a prototype. Examples are animals and automobiles.
Kinds of Thinking
- Directed thinking, or convergent thinking, is a systematic and logical attempt to reach a specific goal or answer, such as the solution to a math problem.
- Nondirected thinking, or divergent thinking, consists of a free flow of thoughts with no particular plan and depends more on images.
- A third type of thinking is metacognition, or thinking about thinking.
Strategies for Problem Solving
An algorithm is a fixed set of procedures that, if followed correctly, will lead to a solution. Mathematical and scientific formulas are algorithms.
While algorithms can be useful in finding solutions, they are a time-consuming method. People often use shortcuts to solve problems, and these shortcuts are called heuristics.
Heuristics are experimental strategies, or rules of thumb, that simplify a problem, allowing one to solve the problems quickly and easily.
3 Types of Heuristics
The availability heuristic is a mental shortcut that helps us make a decision based on how easy it is to bring something to mind. We tend to assume that if several examples are readily available in our mind the event or subject matter is commonplace.
The representativeness heuristic is a mental shortcut that helps us make a decision by comparing information to our mental prototypes. Unfortunately, many examples of the representativeness heuristic involve succumbing to stereotypes.
Finally, the base-rate heuristic is a mental shortcut that helps us make a decision base on probability. This is when we make a snap judgment based on our knowledge of how likely something is to occur or be true statistically.
Read What is a Heuristic to learn more about these mental shortcuts.
Strategies for Problem Solving
There are times when certain useful strategies become cemented into the problem-solving process. When a particular strategy becomes a habit, it is called a mental set - you are set to treat the problem in a certain way.
One form of mental set that can interfere with problem solving is functional fixedness - the ability to imagine new uses for familiar objects.
In experiments on functional fixedness, people are asked to solve a problem that requires them to use a familiar object in an unfamiliar way (Duncker 1945). Because they are set to use the object in the usual way, they tend to pay attention only to the features of the object that relate to its everyday use. In other words they can't think outside the box. They see the object in only one way and see no other possibility for its use.
Here's one classic example of functional fixedness at work:
You have two candles, numerous thumbtacks, and a box of matches. Using only these items, try to figure out how to mount the candles to a wall.
Read What is Functional Fixedness to learn about this experiment by Gesalt psychologist K. Duncker.
Creativity, Flexibility and Recombination
The ability to use information in such a way that the result is somehow new, original, and meaningful is creativity.
All problem solving requires some creativity. Creativity seems to be attached to flexibility and the ability to recombine elements.
The ability to overcome rigidity is flexibility.
When elements of a problem are familiar but the required solution is not, it may be achieved by recombination, a new mental arrangement of the elements. For example in dancing or football, there are no new steps or plays, only re-combinations of old ones.
Insight
The sudden emergence of a solution by recombination of elements is called insight.
Insight usually occurs when problems have proved resistant to all problem-solving strategies. This sudden insight has appropriately been called the "aha" moment.
 |