The journal of problem solving最新文献

{"title":"Situative Creativity: Larger Physical Spaces Facilitate Thinking of Novel Uses for Everyday Objects","authors":"Joel Chan, Timothy J. Nokes-Malach","doi":"10.7771/1932-6246.1184","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7771/1932-6246.1184","url":null,"abstract":"People often use spatial metaphors (e.g., think “laterally,” “outside the box”) to describe exploration of the problem space during creative problem solving. In this paper, we probe the potential cognitive underpinnings of these spatial metaphors. Drawing on theories of situative cognition, semantic foraging theory, and environmental psychology, we formulate and test the hypothesis that larger physical spaces can facilitate divergent (but not convergent) processes in problem space exploration. Across two experiments, participants worked on a battery of problem solving tasks intended to represent divergent (alternative uses, shape invention) and convergent (remote associates, letter extrapolation) problem solving processes in either a large or a small room. In Experiment 1, participants in the larger room produced more novel alternative uses for everyday objects, and created more novel shape inventions, but generated less practical alternative uses, than participants in the smaller room. In Experiment 2, participants in the larger room (including a variant larger room) also produced more novel alternative uses for everyday objects, and less practical alternative uses, than participants in a small room, but did not create more novel shape inventions. These results suggest that spatial metaphors for problem space exploration may reflect meaningful cognitive phenomena: People may be able to search more broadly in a problem space if they are in an environment where broad physical search is a salient affordance; however, this effect appears to be relatively small and may depend on having sufficiently motivated participants. Correspondence: Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Joel Chan at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 2504B Newell-Simon Hall, 5000 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, via email to joelchuc@cs.cmu.edu, or via telephone to (479) 647-0575.","PeriodicalId":90070,"journal":{"name":"The journal of problem solving","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75466871","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Alternative Representations in Algebraic Problem Solving: When are Graphs Better Than Equations?","authors":"Marta K. Mielicki, J. Wiley","doi":"10.7771/1932-6246.1181","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7771/1932-6246.1181","url":null,"abstract":"Successful algebraic problem solving entails adaptability of solution methods using different representations. Prior research has suggested that students are more likely to prefer symbolic solution methods (equations) over graphical ones, even when graphical methods should be more efficient. However, this research has not tested how representation format might affect solution success, and whether the efficiency of solution varies depending on the nature of the problem solving task. This study addressed the question of whether symbolic or graphical representation format provides different affordances with respect to two different types of problems: computation and interpretation. Graphical representation was found to facilitate problem solving among college students, and problems that required the comparison of slopes were more difficult when presented in a symbolic format than in graphical format. Correspondence: Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Marta K. Mielicki, via email to mmieli2@uic.edu.","PeriodicalId":90070,"journal":{"name":"The journal of problem solving","volume":"142 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78487565","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Does Comparing Informal and Formal Procedures Promote Mathematics Learning? The Benefits of Bridging Depend on Attitudes Toward Mathematics","authors":"Shanta Hattikudur, P. Sidney, M. Alibali","doi":"10.7771/1932-6246.1180","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7771/1932-6246.1180","url":null,"abstract":"1 Temple University, 2 University of Wisconsin—Madison Students benefit from learning multiple procedures for solving the same or related problems. However, past research on comparison instruction has focused on comparing multiple formal procedures. This study investigated whether the benefits of comparing procedures extend to comparisons that involve informal and formal procedures. We also examined how learner characteristics, including prior knowledge and attitudes toward mathematics, affect learning from comparing procedures. We addressed these issues in college students’ learning procedures for solving systems of equations problems in algebra. Learners who liked mathematics learned equally well whether they received comparison or sequential instruction. However, among learners who did not like mathematics, instruction that included support for comparisons between the formal and informal procedures led to greater gains in conceptual knowledge than did sequential instruction of the procedures. Correspondence: Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Shanta Hattikudur, via email to shanta.hattikudur@temple.edu.","PeriodicalId":90070,"journal":{"name":"The journal of problem solving","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76032974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Editor's Introduction","authors":"J. Wiley","doi":"10.7771/1932-6246.1186","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7771/1932-6246.1186","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":90070,"journal":{"name":"The journal of problem solving","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77536107","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Solving Classical Insight Problems Without Aha! Experience: 9 Dot, 8 Coin, and Matchstick Arithmetic Problems","authors":"Amory H. Danek, J. Wiley, M. Öllinger","doi":"10.7771/1932-6246.1183","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7771/1932-6246.1183","url":null,"abstract":"Insightful problem solving is a vital part of human thinking, yet very difficult to grasp. Traditionally, insight has been investigated by using a set of established \"insight tasks,\" assuming that insight has taken place if these problems are solved. Instead of assuming that insight takes place during every solution of the 9 Dot, 8 Coin, and Matchstick Arithmetic Problems, this study explored the likelihood that solutions evoked the \"Aha! experience,\" which is often regarded as the defining characteristic of insight. It was predicted that the rates of self-reported Aha! experiences might vary based on the necessary degree of constraint relaxation. The main assumption was that the likelihood of experiencing an Aha! would decrease with increasing numbers of constraints that must be relaxed, because several steps are needed to achieve a representational change and solve the problem, and thus, the main feature of suddenness of a solution might be lacking. The results supported this prediction, and demonstrated that in many cases participants do solve these classical insight problems without any Aha! experience. These results show the importance of obtaining insight ratings from participants to determine whether any given problem is solved with insight or not.","PeriodicalId":90070,"journal":{"name":"The journal of problem solving","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88694454","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Development of the PEBL Traveling Salesman Problem Computerized Testbed","authors":"Shane T. Mueller, B. Perelman, Yin-Yin Tan, Kejkaew Thanasuan","doi":"10.7771/1932-6246.1169","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7771/1932-6246.1169","url":null,"abstract":"The traveling salesman problem (TSP) is a combinatorial optimization problem that requires finding the shortest path through a set of points (“cities”) that returns to the starting point. Because humans provide heuristic near-optimal solutions to Euclidean versions of the problem, it has sometimes been used to investigate human visual problem solving ability. The TSP is also similar to a number of tasks commonly used for neuropsychological assessment (such as the trail-making test), and so its utility in assessing reliable individual differences in problem solving has sometimes been examined. Nevertheless, the task has seen little widespread use in clinical and assessment domains, in part because no standard software implementation or item set is widely available with known psychometric properties. In this paper, we describe a computerized version of TSP running in the free and open source Psychology Experiment Building Language (PEBL). The PEBL TSP task is designed to be suitable for use within a larger battery of tests, and to examine both standard and custom TSP node configurations (i.e., problems). We report the results of a series of experiments that help establish the test’s reliability and validity. The first experiment examines test-retest reliability, establishes that the quality of solutions in the TSP are not impacted by mild physiological strain, and demonstrates how solution quality obtained by individuals in a physical version is highly correlated with solution quality obtained in the PEBL version. The second experiment evaluates a larger set of problems, and uses the data to identify a small subset of tests that have maximal coherence. A third experiment examines test-retest reliability of this smaller set that can be administered in about five minutes, and establishes that these problems produce composite scores with moderately high (R = .75) test-retest reliability, making it suitable for use in many assessment situations, including evaluations of individual differences, personality, and intelligence testing. Correspondence: Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Shane T. Mueller, Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences, 1400 Townsend Drive, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, 49931, or via email to shanem@mtu.edu.","PeriodicalId":90070,"journal":{"name":"The journal of problem solving","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77653025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Human-Machine Cooperation in Large-Scale Multimedia Retrieval: A Survey","authors":"Kimiaki Shirahama, M. Grzegorzek, B. Indurkhya","doi":"10.7771/1932-6246.1173","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7771/1932-6246.1173","url":null,"abstract":"Large-Scale Multimedia Retrieval (LSMR) is the task to fast analyze a large amount of multimedia data like images or videos and accurately find the ones relevant to a certain semantic meaning. Although LSMR has been investigated for more than two decades in the fields of multimedia processing and computer vision, a more interdisciplinary approach is necessary to develop an LSMR system that is really meaningful for humans. To this end, this paper aims to stimulate attention to the LSMR problem from diverse research fields. By explaining basic terminologies in LSMR, we first survey several representative methods in chronological order. This reveals that due to prioritizing the generality and scalability for large-scale data, recent methods interpret semantic meanings with a completely different mechanism from humans, though such humanlike mechanisms were used in classical heuristic-based methods. Based on this, we discuss human-machine cooperation , which incorporates knowledge about human interpretation into LSMR without sacrificing the generality and scalability. In particular, we present three approaches to human-machine cooperation ( cognitive , ontological , and adaptive ), which are attributed to cognitive science, ontology engineering, and metacognition, respectively. We hope that this paper will create a bridge to enable researchers in different fields to communicate about the LSMR problem and lead to a ground-break-ing next generation of LSMR systems.","PeriodicalId":90070,"journal":{"name":"The journal of problem solving","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84603782","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Conceptual Transformation and Cognitive Processes in Origami Paper Folding","authors":"T. Tenbrink, H. Taylor","doi":"10.7771/1932-6246.1154","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7771/1932-6246.1154","url":null,"abstract":"Research on problem solving typically does not address tasks that involve following detailed and/or illustrated step-by-step instructions. Such tasks are not seen as cognitively challenging problems to be solved. In this paper, we challenge this assumption by analyzing verbal protocols collected during an Origami folding task. Participants verbalised thoughts well beyond reading or reformulating task instructions, or commenting on actions. In particular, they compared the task status to pictures in the instruction, evaluated the progress so far, referred to previous experience, expressed problems and confusions, andâ��cruciallyâ��added complex thoughts and ideas about the current instructional step. The last two categories highlight the fact that participants conceptualised this spatial task as a problem to be solved, and used creativity to achieve this aim. Procedurally, the verbalisations reflect a typical order of steps: readingâ��reformulatingâ��reconceptualisingâ��evaluating. During reconceptualisation, the creative range of spatial concepts represented in language highlights the complex mental operations involved when transferring the two-dimensional representation into the real world. We discuss the implications of our findings in terms of problem solving as a multilayered process involving diverse types of cognitive effort, consider parallels to known conceptual challenges involved in interpreting spatial descriptions, and reflect on the benefit of reconceptualisation for cognitive processes.","PeriodicalId":90070,"journal":{"name":"The journal of problem solving","volume":"124 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90584533","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Differential Modulation of Performance in Insight and Divergent Thinking Tasks with tDCS","authors":"V. Goel, Iveta Eimontaite, A. Goel, I. Schindler","doi":"10.7771/1932-6246.1172","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7771/1932-6246.1172","url":null,"abstract":"While both insight and divergent thinking tasks are used to study creativity, there are reasons to believe that the two may call upon very different mechanisms. To explore this hypothesis, we administered a verbal insight task (riddles) and a divergent thinking task (verbal fluency) to 16 native English speakers and 16 non-native English speakers after they underwent Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) of the left middle temporal gyrus and right temporo- parietal junction. We found that, in the case of the insight task the depolarization of right temporo-parietal junction and hyperpolarization of left middle temporal gyrus resulted in increased performance, relative to both the control condition and the reverse stimulation condition in both groups (non-native > native speakers). However, in the case of the divergent thinking task, the same pattern of stimulation resulted in a decrease in performance, compared to the reverse stimulation condition, in the non-native speakers. We explain this dissociation in terms of differing task demands of divergent thinking and insight tasks and speculate that the greater sensitivity of non-native speakers to tDCS stimulation may be a function of less entrenched neural networks for non-native languages.","PeriodicalId":90070,"journal":{"name":"The journal of problem solving","volume":"168 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75338433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An Investigation of Starting Point Preferences in Human Performance on Traveling Salesman Problems","authors":"J. MacGregor","doi":"10.7771/1932-6246.1159","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7771/1932-6246.1159","url":null,"abstract":"Previous studies have shown that people start traveling sales problem tours significantly more often from boundary than from interior nodes. There are a number of possible reasons for such a tendency: first, it may arise as a direct result of the processes involved in tour construction; second, boundary points may be perceptually more salient than interior points, and selected for that reason; third, starting from the boundary may make the task easier or be more likely to result in a better tour than starting from the interior. The present research investigated each of these possibilities by analyzing start point frequencies in previously unpublished data and by conducting an experiment. The analysis of start points provided some slight but contradictory support for the hypothesis that start selections result from the process of tour construction, but no evidence for the perceptual salience explanation. The experiment required participants to start tours either from a boundary or from an interior point, to test whether there was an effect on the quality of tour construction. No evidence was found that starting point affected either the length of tours or the time required to produce them. However, there was some indication that starting from a central location may be more likely to result in crossed arcs.","PeriodicalId":90070,"journal":{"name":"The journal of problem solving","volume":"68 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73808735","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}