Exploring the Depths of Thought: Problem Solving Part 4

We've already seen in previous blog-isodes that the solution of a difficult problem often involves a dramatic shift in the way in which the problem is viewed.

Source

This shift may be very sudden and is then experienced as a flash of insight, a sense of "aha" that occurs when the misleading set is finally broken.

Restructuring is especially clear in problems that impose a false conceptual set.

To solve the nine-dot problem, the
subject has to move out of the square frame imposed by the dots.

In a similar vein, the match problem requires working in three dimensions rather than two,

while the horse-and-rider problem can only be solved by a 90-degree rotation of the drawing which recombines the fore and
hindquarters of the misshapen horses to form two new animals entirely.

Gestalt psychologists have proposed that this kind of perceptual restructuring
lies at the heart of most problem solving in both animals and humans.

So far, little is known about the mechanisms that underlie the restructuring effect, but there is reason to believe that it is a central phenomenon in the psychology of thinking.

Now to another interesting part of problem solving: The Creative Thinker.

The creative thinker is one who generates a problem solution that is both new and
appropriate.

At the top of the pyramid are such giants as Archimedes, Descartes, and Newton, whose creations define whole chapters of intellectual history.

On another level are the anonymous copywriters who develop new advertising slogans for spray deodorants.

But whether great or humble, these real-life achievements are quite similar to those of the problem solver in the psychological laboratory.

They represent a conceptual reorganization of what was there before.

According to the creators' own accounts, the critical insights typically occur at unexpected times and places. There is usually a period of intense preparation during which the thinker is totally immersed in the problem and approaches it from all possible angles.

But illumination tends not to come then.

Quite the contrary.

After the initial onslaught fails, there is usually a period of retreat during which the problem is temporarily shelved.

Rest or some other activity intervenes, and then suddenly the solution arrives, not at the writer's desk or the composer's
piano, but elsewhere entirely

• while walking in the woods (Helmholtz),

• riding in a carriage (Beethoven, Darwin),

• stepping onto a bus (the great mathematician Poincaré),

• while sitting in a bathtub (Archimedes)

Such effects have sometimes been attributed to a process of incubation.

According to this view, a thinker does not ignore the unsolved problem altogether when he turns away from it in baffled frustration. He continues to work on it, but does so "unconsciously."

This hypothesis adds little to our understanding, it merely substitutes one mystery for another.

Unless we know the why and wherefore of unconscious thought (whatever that may be), we know no more than we did before.

Many psychologists suspect that such incubation effects are produced
by a change in mental set.

To find the solution, the problem solver must shake off one or more false approaches.

These become increasingly restricting the longer she stays at the task, all the more so
since her motivation is very intense. Leaving the problem for a while may very
well break the mental set.

As time elapses, the false set may be forgotten, and the drastic change of retrieval cues (to the woods or to the bathtub) will prevent its reinstatement.

Once the false set is dropped, there is a chance that the true solution may emerge.

Of course, it is only a chance that may come to fruition if one is totally familiar with all the ins and outs of the problem and (especially) if one has the talents of a Beethoven or an Archimedes.

Just taking a bath is unfortunately not enough.

The Bus Stops Here for today:

Thank you, friends, for staying with me through these blogisodes. Your thoughts and opinions are always welcome and appreciated. I'd be happy to hear them. Until then, stay safe, friends.♥️

References and Links:

https://www.concordia.ca/cunews/offices/provost/health/topics/stress-management/cognitive-restructuring-examples.html#:~:text=Cognitive%20restructuring%20is%20a%20technique,that%20do%20not%20produce%20stress.

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-problem-solving-2795485#:~:text=Problem%2Dsolving%20is%20a%20mental,largely%20on%20the%20unique%20situation.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6297678/#:~:text=A%20mental%20set%20generally%20refers,short%2Dterm%20mental%20set).

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-mental-set-2795370

https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/lumenpsychology/chapter/reading-pitfalls-to-problem/#:~:text=A%20mental%20set%20is%20where,what%20it%20was%20designed%20for.

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