Module 7

The initial state

describes the situation at the beginning of the problem. In this case, your initial state might be, “I need to reach Jim tonight so that we can begin to work on our social psychology project . . . but I don’t know his last name, his email address, or his phone number.”

The goal state

is reached when you solve the problem. Here, it could be, “I have Jim’s last name and his e

The obstacles

describe the restrictions that make it difficult to proceed from the initial state to the goal state

Fixation

people’s tendency to focus on a specific characteristic of the problem that keeps them from arriving at a solution.

Functional fixedness

focusing on familiar uses of an object. Restricting the use of an object to its familiar functions is called. is a type of cognitive bias that involves a tendency to see objects as only working in a particular way.

Exhaustive search

is a brute force approach to solving a problem that involves searching for an element with a special property,

Anagram

is a phrase or word that when its letters are rearranged, another phrase or word is created.

Heuristic

The strategy of looking only for pronounceable letter combinations is an example of a __. is a mental shortcut that allows people to solve problems and make judgments quickly and efficiently.

Transformation

the solver carries out or creates a sequence of changes to arrive at a solution.

The Hill Climbing Heuristic

can be useful when you do not have enough information about your alternatives solution when you can see only the immediate next step.

Analysis

its breaking down the whole of a complex problem into manageable elements.

Synthesis

putting together various elements to arrange them into something useful.

divergent thinking

you try to generate a diverse assortment of possible alternative solutions to a problem.

convergent thinking

to narrow down the multiple possibilities to converge on a single best answer.