Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research and Everyday Experience (MindTap Course List)
Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research and Everyday Experience (MindTap Course List)
4th Edition
ISBN: 9781285763880
Author: E. Bruce Goldstein
Publisher: Cengage Learning
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Chapter 12.2, Problem 1TY
Summary Introduction

Introduction

When an individual encounters a specific problem, he often feels confused in terms of how to proceed toward the solution. During such times, the prior knowledge of having solved a similar problem often helps. This approach includes the use of analogy.

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Explanation of Solution

Answer and explanation

When a person uses a similar approach to deal with a problem that he/she has already encountered and solved in the past, the person is said to utilize analogical problem solving. This involves analogical transfer that indicates the way in which individuals transfer their knowledge and experience from one problem-solving experience to another. The target problem denotes the issue that a person is trying to deal with. The source problem is the one which shares a certain resemblance with the target problem and represents how to solve the target issue.

For the problem of mutilated checkerboard, the checkerboard problems refer to the target problem, whereas the Russian marriage problem denotes the source problem. It was established that presenting the Russian marriage problem improved a person’s capability to solve the problem of the mutilated checkerboard. These results provided the evidence for the occurrence of analogical transfer.

However, from the results of numerous studies conducted on radiation problem and fortress story problem, it was concluded that even when a person is presented with a familiar source problem, the majority of individuals could not form any connection between the target and the source problem.

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