Lab Exercise with Quizzing

Read the materials, click on the lab exercise links and take the quizzes. Please note these will open in a new window.

Lab Exercise 1: Monster Problem Demonstration

This demonstrates the impact a surface structure of a problem can have on one’s ability to solve the problem. This includes a variant of the Tower of Hanoi problem. Students may click on the “Classic Tower of Hanoi problem” or the “Three Monster Problem,” or a variant of the two, along with extended information about this exercise.

Perform the demonstration

Follow-Up Quiz

1. In problem solving, ______ and the way a particular problem is framed are considered its surface structure.

  1. complexity
  2. context
  3. confoundedness

Ans: B

2. Human observers often have difficulties seeing the similarity of deep structures between two problems of surface structures.

  1. True
  2. False

Ans: T

3. Human observers often rely on the similarity of the deep structure to determine which problem to rely on in analogical problem solving.

  1. True
  2. False

Ans: B

 

Lab Exercise 2: Heuristics Demonstration

An excellent resource intended to assist students with their mastery and appreciation of the field of cognitive psychology. Perform the Heuristics exercise, you will have approximately 5 minutes to figure out the problem. Next, discuss the steps that led to solving the problem. What steps did you use?

Follow-Up Quiz

1. People often find this problem difficult to solve because the solution requires a step in which we move one of the elements away from the goal state. This is difficult because it violates the ______.

  1. trial and error strategy
  2. hill climbing strategy
  3. the working-backwards strategy
  4. analogical transfer strategy

Ans: B

2. If you attempt to solve this farmer/hen/grain/fox problem by recognizing that it is similar to the Tower of Hanoi problem, then you are using a ______.

  1. trial and error strategy
  2. hill climbing strategy
  3. the working-backwards strategy
  4. analogical transfer strategy

Ans: D

3. If you attempt to solve this farmer/hen/grain/fox problem by randomly trying out as many different possible solutions, then you are using a ______.

  1. trial and error strategy
  2. hill climbing strategy
  3. the working-backwards strategy
  4. analogical transfer strategy

Ans: A

 

Lab Exercise 3: Algorithm Demonstration

Perform the algorithm exercise. You will have 5 minutes to figure out the problem. Next, discuss the steps that led to solving the algorithm. What steps did you use? How did this process differ from the previous exercise?

Follow-Up Quiz

1. Suppose that you input 4 and get -44 as your output. If your guess is “add -48” which gives the right answer some of the time, but not all of the time, then your guess is a(n) ______.

  1. algorithm
  2. heuristic
  3. analogy
  4. insight

Ans: B

2. Suppose that you input 4 and get 28 as your output. If your guess is “add 24” which gives the right answer every time, then your guess is a(n) ______.

  1. algorithm
  2. heuristic
  3. analogy
  4. insight

Ans: A

3. A valid algorithm should result in the correct solution every time.

  1. True
  2. False

Ans: T

 

Lab Exercise 4: Creativity Test: Insight Problems

Designed by Prof. Gayle Dow from Indiana University. It offers many interesting demos concerning thinking and problem solving. Perform the Insight problems and be sure to solve each task without resorting to the solution option. How is Insight different from Heuristics or Algorithms? Did you use different strategies when solving each individual task (spatial, mathematical)? When do you think using insight to solve problems work best?

Follow-Up Quiz 

1. The insight problems in this demonstration show that finding the solution often involves ______.

  1. changing the way the problem is presented
  2. working through a hierarchal problem space
  3. chunking information to reduce working memory capacity
  4. encoding information to use bizarre imagery

Ans: A

2. The spatial insight problems in this demonstration show that finding the solution often involves ______.

  1. using the availability heuristic
  2. overcoming perceptual grouping principles
  3. the evaluation of the logical combination of mental models
  4. using a hill-climbing solution

Ans: C

3. Insight problems are usually considered well-defined problems.

  1. True
  2. False

Ans: F