Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

282 CHAPTER 7 Thinking, Language, and IntelligencealgorithmA problem-solving strategy that involves followinga specific rule, procedure, or methodthat inevitably produces the correct solution.heuristicA problem-solving strategy that involves followinga general rule of thumb to reducethe number of possible solutions.insightThe sudden realization of how a problemcan be solved.intuitionComing to a conclusion or making a judgmentwithout conscious awareness of thethought processes involved.When the range of possible answers or solutions is large, however, trial and errorcan be very time-consuming. For example, our friend Robert typically learns newcomputer programs by trial and error. Rather than taking 20 minutes to lookthrough the manual, he’ll spend hours trying different menu commands to see if hecan make the software do what it’s supposed to do.AlgorithmsGuaranteed to WorkUnlike trial and error, an algorithm is a procedure or method that, when followedstep by step, always produces the correct solution. Mathematical formulas are examplesof algorithms. For instance, the formula used to convert temperatures fromCelsius to Fahrenheit (multiply C by 9/5, then add 32) is an algorithm.Even though an algorithm may be guaranteed to eventually produce a solution,using an algorithm is not always practical. For example, imagine that while rummagingin a closet you find a combination lock with no combination attached. Usingan algorithm will eventually produce the correct combination. You can start with0–0–0, then try 0–0–1, followed by 0–0–2, and so forth, and systematically workyour way through combinations to 36–36–36. But this solution would take a while,because there are 46,656 potential combinations to try. So, although using analgorithm to generate the correct combination for the combination lock is guaranteedto work eventually, it’s not a very practical approach to solving this particularproblem.© 2006 The New Yorker Collection. Cartoonbank.com, Christopher Weyent“Yup, I’m guessing here’s your problem.”HeuristicsRules of ThumbIn contrast to an algorithm, a heuristic is a general rule-of-thumb strategy that mayor may not work. Although heuristic strategies are not guaranteed to solve a givenproblem, they tend to simplify problem solving because they let you reduce thenumber of possible solutions. With a more limited range of solutions, you can usetrial and error to eventually arrive at the correct one. In this way, heuristics mayserve an adaptive purpose by allowing us to use patterns of information to solveproblems quickly and accurately (Goldstein & Gigerenzer, 2002).Here’s an example. Creating footnotes is described somewhere in the onscreen“Help” documentation for a word-processing software program. If you use thealgorithm of scrolling through every page of the Help program, you’re guaranteedto solve the problem eventually. But you can greatly simplify your task by using theheuristic of entering “footnotes” in the Help program’s search box. This strategydoes not guarantee success, because the search term may not be indexed.One common heuristic is to break a problem into a series of subgoals. This strategyis often used in writing a term paper. Choosing a topic, locating informationabout the topic, organizing the information, and so on become a series of subproblems.As you solve each subproblem, you move closer to solving the larger problem.Another useful heuristic involves working backward from the goal. Starting withthe end point, you determine the steps necessary to reach your final goal. Forexample, when making a budget, people often start off with the goal of spendingno more than a certain total each month, then work backward to determine howmuch of the target amount they will allot for each category of expenses.Perhaps the key to successful problem solving is flexibility. A good problemsolver is able to recognize that a particular strategy is unlikely to yield a solution—and knows to switch to a different approach (Bilalić & others, 2008). And, sometimes,the reality is that a problem may not have a single “best” solution.Remember Tom, whose story we told in the Prologue? One characteristic of Asperger’ssyndrome is cognitive rigidity and inflexible thinking (Kleinhans & others,2005; Toth & King, 2008). Like Tom, many people can become frustrated whenthey are “stuck” on a problem. Unlike Tom, most people are able to sense when it’stime to switch to a new strategy, take a break for a few hours, seek assistance from