Phase II Part V

Insight:

When you realize the solution of a problem all-of-a-suddenly. In other words, you understand the parts of the problem and you suddenly have inspiration and can solve the problem. This is the opposite of trial and error. For example, in the game of chess insight learning is used to decide what move to make.

Confirmation Bias:

Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for something that will confirm that our ideas were correct, instead of just searching for the correct solution. This is a negative aspect to problem solving because bias alters our views of the problem.

Fixation:

Fixation is another negative aspect in problem solving. Fixation is the inability to change your perspective on a problem or issue. For instance, sometimes when we work in biology lab groups each person has a different view of the problem. Then everyone argues because we don't have the ability to change views because we don't want to be wrong.

Mental Set:

This is the tendency to follow a way that we have previously learned to solve a problem that may or may not help us to solve this problem. However, we use this method to try to solve the problem any how. For example, sometimes in math if we don't know how to solve a problem we will use a method that we already know even if it is the wrong way to solve the problem.

Functional Fixedness:

This is a form of confirmation bias when we only think of something in terms of its functionality in order to try to solve a problem. This is an ineffective way to solve problems because you are not looking at something in its entirety. One example is if we only look at an object's major function instead of everything that it is capable of doing to solve a problem.

Representativeness Heuristic:

This is a cognitive bias based on previous patterns of a similar situation. In other words, tendency to predict the likelihood of something happening based on a pattern. For instance, some people believe that if they role a dice enough times then they should get the same ratio of each number on the dice.