Unit 3: Problem Solving and Collaboration Essential Question: What are the problem solving skills I will need to be successful? Today’s Topic: Errors in Problem Solving Objective: Leave today able to use four effective problem solving strategies.

Problem Solving Steps 1.Define the Problem 2.Pick and use a strategy 3.Check your progress toward the goal 4.Reflect on the process

Heuristic Methods Hill climbing –Move progressively closer to goal without moving backward Subgoals –Break large problem into smaller, more manageable ones, each of which is easier to solve than the whole problem Means-end analysis –Aims to reduce the discrepancy between the current situation and the desired goal – subgoals not immediately in the solution direction are considered Working backward –Work backward from the desired goal to the existing condition

Obstacles in Solving Problems Confirmation Bias: A tendency to search for information that confirms a personal bias. After having bought a piece of clothing, we will look for the same clothing in a more expensive store to confirm that we have bought a bargain.

Obstacles to Solving Problems Motivation –Desire to solve a problem Mental sets –Tendency to perceive and approach problems in certain ways Functional fixedness –Tendency to see only a limited number of uses for an object

Other Obstacles Confirmation Bias – while we solve the problem this is our eagerness to look for information that confirms our ideas Belief Bias – our prior ideas distort our logic Belief Perseverance – clinging to our prior idea even after it has been discredited

Which claims the most deaths per 100,000 Americans? 1.All accidents or strokes 2.Suicide or blood poisoning 3.Murder or diabetes 4.Colon Cancer or Motor vehicle accidents 5.Drowning or leukemia

Which has a bigger population 1.Morocco or Saudi Arabia 2.Myanmar or Australia 3.Vietnam or South Africa 4.Sri Lanka or Libya 5.Tanzania or Iraq Detroit (crime index = 531) vs. Myrtle Beach (597) Chicago (335) vs. Baltimore (479) Manhattan (152) vs. Gary (544) Boston (223) vs. Flint (329) Montreal (181) vs. Hot Springs (201) San Francisco (176) vs. Durham (216)

Which city has a higher crime rate? 1.Detroit or Myrtle Beach 2.Chicago or Baltimore 3.Manhattan or Gary 4.Boston or Flint 5.Montreal or Hot Springs 6.San Francisco or Durham

Answers Deaths per 100,000 All accidents (35.7) vs. strokes (57.4) Suicide (10.4) vs. blood poisoning (11.3) Homicide (7.1) vs. diabetes (25.1) Motor vehicle accidents (15.7) vs. colorectal cancer (18.9) Drowning (1.1) vs. leukemia (7.8)

Answers Morocco (32 million) vs. Saudi Arabia (26 million) Myanmar (43 million) vs. Australia (20 million) Vietnam (83 million) vs. South Africa (43 million) Sri Lanka (20 million) vs. Libya (6 million) Tanzania (37 million) vs. Iraq (25 million)

Answers Detroit (crime index = 531) vs. Myrtle Beach (597) Chicago (335) vs. Baltimore (479) Manhattan (152) vs. Gary (544) Boston (223) vs. Flint (329) Montreal (181) vs. Hot Springs (201) San Francisco (176) vs. Durham (216)

Availability Heuristic Operates when we base our judgments on how mentally available information is. The faster people can remember an instance of some event the more they expect it to occur. Social Judgments? Presented people with a single vivid case of welfare abuse. Then with statistical reality. The case had a bigger influence on opinions when people were polled (Duncan 1988)

Availability Heuristic Why does our availability heuristic lead us astray? Whatever increases the ease of retrieving information increases its perceived availability. How is retrieval facilitated? 1.How recently we have heard about the event. 2.How distinct it is.

Representativeness Heuristic Judging the likelihood of things or objects in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, a particular prototype. If you meet a slim, short, man who wears glasses and likes poetry, what do you think his profession would be? An Ivy league professor or a truck driver?

Truth or Lie 1. Something that happened to me during grade school 2. My favorite meal 3. My earliest memory 4. My favorite vacation trip 5. A high point of my high school days 6. The most influential person in my life 7. My favorite professor outside the psych department 8. The part of the country in which I’d most like to live 9. A surprising talent that I have 10. Something interesting about a member of my family

Things that can help Divergent thinking Foster creativity in your group Parallel Process