Problem Solving (Open Guides to Psychology)

An up-to-date, in-depth treatment of the major current issues, theories and findings. It introduces a representative selection of different research methods and the reader is encouraged, by means of activities and self-assessment questions, to become an active participant in cognitive psychology. In particular, the student is introduced to problem solving by working through actual problems and so is able to test and develop theoretical frameworks by "hands on" experience. The first edition of this book established itself as an innovative and accessible introduction to problem solving. This second edition has been extensively rewritten to take account of the latest research developments in the subject.

The first of three main parts considers the analysis of problem structures and the strategies used in solving problems, exploring the concept of humans as active processors of information. This leads, in the second part, to an examination of the role of previous experience in solving (new) problems, and of the use of computers to model the processes involved in problem solving and learning. The final part looks at recent research on "intelligence" by cognitive psychologists. The processes underlying behaviour on a subset of intellgence-test tasks are examined and the question of whether or not intelligence can be trained is explored - in particular whether training on particular intelligence-test tasks generalizes to different situations, such as classroom performance.