Which one of the following is the best example of someone using a heuristic (rather than an algorithm) in problem solving?
a. Susan wants to know how long it will take her to drive from Phoenix to Los Angeles. She knows that the distance is 400 miles, and she figures she will average 50 miles an hour with stops, so she predicts the trip will take 8 hours.
b. Vinnie has a round hot tub that is six feet in diameter; he wants to build a top to cover it. He remembers the formula for calculating the area of a circle and works out how many feet of lumber he needs.
c. John wants to buy a computer. He compares prices at different computer stores and buys whichever model is least expensive.
d. Marion can't think of a plot for the short story she needs to write. She breaks her task into smaller pieces: First she'll decide who the main character will be, then she'll think of a conflict for that character to experience, and finally she'll identify a reasonable resolution of that conflict.
Ques. 2The primary advantage of using an algorithm (rather than a heuristic) is that it:
a. Always yields a correct solution if executed correctly
b. Is widely applicable to many different content domains
c. Can be easily used by the typical 6-year-old child
d. Never takes more than five minutes to complete
Ques. 3Sarah needs to solve this word problem:
A sweater in a store is originally priced at 40, but the price tag is marked One-half off. The sweater is placed on a rack marked Five dollars off the sale price. How much does the sweater cost now?
Sarah knows how to find one-half of a number; she also knows how to subtract one number from another. She uses both of these operations to arrive at the correct answer of 15 . Which one of the following best describes Sarah's approach to problem solving?
a. Drawing an analogy
b. Availability
c. Working backward
d. Combining algorithms
Ques. 4Mr. Rangel asks his students to write an essay describing how they would deal with the problem of the diminishing areas in which gorillas can successfully live in the wild. Three of the following factors should influence his students' ability to describe possible solutions to the problem. Which factor will not influence students' ability to do welleither for the better or for the worseon the essay?
a. Students' anxiety about how well they do on the essay
b. How much students know about the countries in which gorillas reside
c. How carefully students internally monitor their ways of thinking about the problem
d. The number of specific algorithms students have learned for solving problems in other disciplines (e.g., physics, mathematics)
Ques. 5Three of the following examples reflect the use of metacognition in problem solving. Which one shows little or no metacognition?
a. When Allan discovers that his homework assignment in social studies involves an especially ill-defined and difficult problem, he realizes that he will have to devote a considerable amount of time to the assignment.
b. Brendan is replacing an old, single-paned window in his home with a new, double-paned window unit. Before he begins to work, he thinks about the steps he will need to take and jots down the tools and materials he will need to purchase.
c. Clyde is working on a series of word problems after a unit on multiplication of two-digit numbers. To complete the task as quickly as possible, he simply multiplies the two numbers he sees in each problem; he doesn't bother to read the problems themselves.
d. When Duncan's chemistry teacher assigns a challenging problem that she wants her students to address in chemistry lab, Duncan feels confident that he has both the knowledge and skills to solve the problem successfully if he works slowly and carefully.
Ques. 6From the perspective of information processing theory, incubation facilitates problem solving primarily by:
a. enhancing attentional focus on the problem to be solved
b. slightly expanding the capacity of working memory
c. enabling a more expansive search of long-term memory
d. increasing one's ability to engage in meansends analysis
Ques. 7Which one of the following examples most clearly illustrates the role of retrieval in problem solving?
a. Arnie is trying to solve a physics problem on a classroom test. He is so anxious that he can't recall the problem-solving strategies he needs.
b. Bradley is looking for something to haul water but doesn't have a bucket. He fails to realize that his plastic wastebasket could easily carry water.
c. Charlie is doing a series of addition problems. He overlooks the subtraction sign on the last problem and so adds when he should subtract.
d. Doug is angry that another boy stole his bicycle. Rather than report the theft to the police, he steals a bicycle from someone else.
Ques. 8Perry is trying to solve the following riddle: What creature walks first on four legs, then two, then three? He repeatedly tries to think of an animal that might walk on three legs, but he can only think of animals that walk on either two or four legs. Finally, he is told the correct answer: a human being, who crawls, then walks, then walks with a cane. Which one of the following is the most likely explanation of Perry's difficulty?
a. He has encoded the problem with too narrow a definition of legs.
b. He doesn't have enough working memory capacity.
c. He doesn't have a sufficient knowledge base.
d. He is suffering from functional fixedness.
Ques. 9Sheila is a physicist who has been successfully solving physics problems for years. Tamara is a beginning physics student. Which one of the following differences between Sheila and Tamara are we most likely to see in terms of how they approach physics problems?
a. Sheila is more likely than Tamara to make sure the problems are well-defined before she begins to solve them.
b. Sheila is more likely than Tamara to classify problems based on their superficial characteristics.
c. Sheila is apt to retrieve less information from long-term memory than Tamara retrieves.
d. Sheila is more likely than Tamara to have functional fixedness when she works on problems.
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