The Gestalt Approach

The Gestalt approach was about how people represent a problem in their own minds, and how solving a problem involves a reorganization or restructuring of this representation. The first central idea of Gestalt problem solving is how a problem is represented in a person’s mind. This means what do they think about the problem? They would give people a problem and then see how they could figure out how to solve it by restructuring the problem. Then the second idea of Gestalt is insight. Insight is when you have a sudden realization of how the problem should be solved.

Gestalt assumed that when people were figuring out problems that when they finally have the answer this is insight. Insight is like that Aha! Moment you get when you finally figured the problem out. They believed that restructuring the problems was directly involved in solving insight problems. One of the major obstacles to solving these problems was fixation. Fixation is when people tend to focus on one specific problem area of the problem that keeps them from seeing the real problem, and being able to solve it. When looking at a problem some people tend to have a preconception of how the problem should be solved.

This is called a mental set. The mental set is a preconceived notion about how to approach a problem, which is determined by a person’s experience or what has worked in the past. The Information- Processing Approach is Newell and Simon’s approach to solving problems. They saw problems in terms of an initial state. An Initial state is the conditions at the beginning of a problem. Then you have the goal state which is the solution of the problem. They used the Tower of Hanoi problem, which is three discs stacked on the left peg and the goal state as these discs stacked on the right peg.

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During this problem they introduced the idea of operators which is the actions that take the problem from one state to another. Each step of the problem created and intermediate state. When a problems starts it starts with the initial state and continues through a number of intermediates states that finally reach the goal state. All of these together, the initial state, goal state and all the intermediate states for the problems are called a problem space. A person has to search the problem to find the solution to it, and one way of directing the search of finding the answer is a strategy called means-end nalysis. The goal of means-end analysis is to reduce the difference between the initial state and the goal state. This is achieved by sub goals. Sub goals are the intermediate states that get you closer to the goal state. Analogical problem solving involves three steps according to Gick and Holyoak. Step one is noticing. You have to notice that there is an analogous relationship between the source story and the target problem. This is a crucial step in analogical problem solving. The second step of this is mapping. Mapping is when you have to correspond between the source story and the target problem.

You have to map the different parts of the story together in order to help you solve the problem. Then, the third step is to apply. Applying is you take all of the connections you made during mapping and apply them so you can successfully solve the problem. One thing that makes the first step difficult is that people tend to focus on the surface features of the problem. Surface features are the specific element that makes up the problem. Then you have the structural features. Structural features are the underlying principle that governs the solution.

Studies have shown that when people are able to get enough sleep they are able to perform better when it comes to figuring out a solution to a problem. If someone has studied and then are able to go to sleep without any interruption they are able to process more of what they studied, because our mind will take it all in. If someone studied and then had to stay up a while before they went to sleep they are open to more distractions, and this can cause them not to be able to think about what they know and help them solve the problem effectively.

If I had to pick out three of the objects on our paper to create something it would be the, circle, the rainbow shape and the cross. I would take the circle and make it like a tire that would bounce, and then connect to cross shape to it to make a back for a seat and use the rainbow shape as a handle so I could hold on. In order to use this for transportation you would sit on it and bounce to where ever you needed to go. It would also make a nice chair to just be able to sit on. If you were to use it as a scientific instrument you could use it see how far it would bounce from point a to oint b, and then measure the distance in between. I’m not really sure how it would be used as an appliance, unless you wanted to use it as a heater. If you bounce up and down enough times it would warm the body and you would no longer be cold. Kids would love this to be able to bounce on all over the place, so it would make an excellent toy that could keep a child entertained for hours. If I was to use this as a weapon I could pick it up and throw it at someone and hope it knocks them out, while I run the other direction.

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