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A problem occurs when there is an obstacle between a present state and a goal and it is not immediately obvious how to get around the obstacle. Problem solving, for the Gestalt psychologists, was about 1) how people represent a problem in their mind and 2) how solving a problem involves a reorganisation or restructuring of this representation. One of the central ideas of the Gestalt approach is that success in solving a problem is influenced by how it is represented in the person’s mind. The Gestalt psychologists also introduced the idea that restructuring is associated with insight – the sudden realisation of a problem’s solution. One of the major obstacles to problem solving, according to the Gestalt psychologists is fixation: people’s tendency to focus on a specific characteristic of the problem that keeps them from arriving at a solution. One type of fixation that can work against problem solving, focusing on familiar functions or uses of an object, is called functional fixedness. An example of functional fixedness is provided by the candle problem whereby participants used many objects to complete a certain task. Mental set: a pre-conceived notion about how to approach a problem, which is determined by a person’s experience or what has worked in the past. Newell-Simon Approach to problem solving: o Initial state: Conditions at the beginning of a problem o Goal state: Solution to the problem o Intermediate state: Conditions after each step is made toward solving a problem o Operators: Actions that take the problem from one state to another. Operators are usually governed by rules o Problem space: All possible states that could occur when solving a problem o Means end analysis: A way of solving a problem in which the goal is to reduce the difference between the initial and goal states o Sub goals: Small goals that help create intermediate states that are closer to the goal. Occasionally, a sub goal may appear to increase the distance to the goal state but in the long run can result in the shortest path to the goal o This model can be compared to the Tower of Hanoi model whereby discs are placed of pegs, e.g. for the initial state, all three discs are on the left peg, for the goal state, all three pegs are on the right peg In the think aloud protocol procedure, subjects are asked to say out loud what they are thinking while solving a problem. They are instructed not to describe what they are doing, but to verbalise new thoughts as they occur. Analogy: using the solution to a similar problem to guide the solution of a new problem (analogical problem solving) Analogical transfer: transfer from one problem to another. Two key terms that are used in research on analogical transfer are target problem, which is the problem the subject is trying to solve, and source problem, which is another problem that shares some similarities with the target problem and that illustrates a way to solve the target problem. Gick and Holyoak propose that the process of analogical problem solving involves the following three steps: 1. Noticing: that there is an analogous relationship between the source problem and the target problem 2. Mapping: the correspondence between the source story and the target problem. To use the story to solve the problem, the subject has to map corresponding parts of the story onto the test problem by connecting elements of the source problem 3. Applying: the mapping to generate a parallel solution to the target problem One thing that makes noticing difficult is that people often focus on surface features, specific elements of the problem, such as a tumour. Surface features of the source problem and the target problem can be very different. Structural features are the underlying principle that governs the solution. Analogical encoding: is the process by which two problems are compared and similarities between them are determined

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In vivo problem-solving research: involves observing people to determine how they solve problems in the real world. The advantage of the in vivo approach is that it captures thinking in naturalistic settings. A disadvantage is that it is time consuming and, as with most observational research, it is difficult to isolate and control specific variables. Many examples of creativity focus on divergent thinking: thinking that is open ended, involving a large number of potential “solutions” Preinventive forms: ideas that precede the creation of a finished creative product The idea behind individual brainstorming and Finke’s cognition technique – to keep the mind open – is to avoid fixations that limit creativity. Although these basic principles – “open your mind. Avoid fixation” – are easy to state, they don’t come easily to some people. One trait that seems to be related to both mental illness and creativity is latent inhibition (LI). LI is the capacity to screen out stimuli that are considered irrelevant. Everyone has this property; it is one of the mechanisms that keep us from being overwhelmed by the huge number of stimuli that bombard us every day. The ability to filter out irrelevant stimuli is impaired in some people with mental illness, e.g. those with schizophrenia The link between LI and creativity is that reduced LI is associated with both mental illness and with enhanced creativity Openness to experience combined with intelligence is associated with high creative output Savant syndrome: in which people with autism or other mental disorders are able to achieve extraordinary feats, such as being able to tell the day of the week for any randomly picked date or exhibit great artistic talent or mathematical ability. Savant syndrome is often associated with damage to the anterior temporal lobe (ATL). Deactivating the ATL might open people to different ways of perceiving stimuli....