Instructions: For each question, click on the radio button beside your answer. When you have completed the entire quiz, click the Submit my answers button at the bottom of the page to receive your results.

Question 1:

After hearing a riddle you spend days trying to figure out its elusive solution. Strangely, the answer just seems to pop in your mind one afternoon. Which of the following terms best describes this phenomenon?
a) An insight problem
b) Flexibility–rigidity dimension
c) Functional fixedness
d) Perception

Question 2:

What do Köhler’s observations with Sultan the chimpanzee suggest?
a) Sultan displayed insight.
b) Sultan failed to display insight.
c) Sultan failed to display a Gestalt switch.
d) Sultan suffered functional fixedness.

Question 3:

You are in a problem-solving competition against a group of young children. Amazingly, they outperformed you on a number of different problems. This could be due to which of the following?
a) Structurally blind thinking on their part
b) Productive thinking on your part
c) Productive thinking on their part
d) Structurally blind thinking on your part and their part

Question 4:

Which of the following best represents an overcoming of functional fixedness?
a) Using a stool as a chair
b) Using a lighter as a bottle opener
c) Using a knife to open a letter
d) Putting a TV on top of a dresser

Question 5:

Which of the following is an essential characteristic that distinguishes insight from non-insight problems?
a) The solution takes less time to appear.
b) The solution takes longer to appear.
c) The solution appears suddenly and without warning
d) Insight solutions are preceded by a feeling of “warmth.”

Question 6:

What is the term for having a notion that you will be able to solve a problem?
a) Feeling of “warmth”
b) Feeling of knowing
c) Feeling of anticipation
d) Gestalt switch

Question 7:

What are the two processes involved in the representational change theory?
a) Constraint relaxation and feeling of “warmth”
b) Feeling of knowing and feeling of “warmth”
c) Chunk decomposition and constraint relaxation
d) Feeling of knowing and chunk decomposition

Question 8:

When solving a problem, it can be helpful to identify units that can be thought about independently. What is such course of action called?
a) Chunk decomposition
b) Constraint relaxation
c) Negative transfer
d) Mindlessness

Question 9:

Someone who is open to alternative possibilities when solving a problem is said to be demonstrating ______.
a) mindlessness
b) functional fixedness
c) mindfulness
d) negative transfer

Question 10:

You have just participated in an extra-credit study, and the experimenter sent you off with the knowledge that you exhibited the Einstellung effect. What does this mean?
a) You did very well in the study.
b) You produced many Gestalt switches.
c) You successfully used a number of different heuristics.
d) You probably didn’t do very well and made the same mistake repeatedly.

Question 11:

What was the general finding in Metcalfe and Wiebe’s (1987) study on insight and non-insight problems?
a) The participants could predict which insight problems they could solve.
b) The participants could predict which non-insight problems they could solve.
c) The participants could predict which insight and non-insight problems they could solve.
d) The participants could not predict which insight or non-insight problems they could solve.

Question 12:

Which of the following brain areas has been implicated in the insight problem-solving process?
a) Anterior cingulate cortex
b) Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
c) Inferior temporal cortex
d) Primary visual cortex

Question 13:

Unambiguous solution procedures used by artificial intelligence researchers are known as ______.
a) positive transfers
b) algorithms
c) subgoals
d) search trees

Question 14:

Reducing the difference between the current state and the goal state can be accomplished by ______.
a) a goal stack
b) a Gestalt switch
c) a means–end analysis
d) chunk decomposition

Question 15:

What does retrospective verbalization rely on?
a) Productive thinking
b) Constraint relaxation
c) Short-term memory
d) Long-term memory

Question 16:

Which part of the brain has been suggested to be involved in gaining insight as a result of sleep?
a) Anterior cingulate cortex
b) Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
c) Inferior temporal cortex
d) Hippocampus

Question 17:

What does productive thinking involve?
a) Coming up with as many alternate solutions as possible
b) Using previous solutions to solve the current problem
c) Recognizing and applying general principles that are relevant to the problem
d) None of the above

Question 18:

Insight problems typically require that we ______.
a) perform an evaluation function
b) re-structure the way the problem is represented
c) create a search tree
d) engage in concurrent verbalization

Question 19:

Which of the following is NOT associated with the General Problem Solver (GPS)?
a) Production rules
b) Means-ends analysis
c) Goal stack
d) Analysis of the situation

Question 20:

What did Weisberg and Alba (1981) conclude from their study that made use of the nine-dot problem?
a) Unnecessary assumptions can be overcome with hints.
b) The Gestalt theory of problem-solving was incorrect.
c) Insight is involuntary.
d) A hint is useful to solve the nine-dot problem to the extent that it coincides with the problem solver’s direction of thought.

True or False Questions

Question 21:

Negative transfer refers to the inability to use tools outside of their normal use.
a) True
b) False

Question 22:

The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is critical in problem-solving, as exemplified by a study using the water jar problem with patients who have had prefrontal lesions.
a) True
b) False

Question 23:

Mindfulness refers to the tendency to behave as if the situation had only one possible interpretation.
a) True
b) False

Question 24:

A heuristic is a problem-solving strategy that guarantees the correct solution to a problem.
a) True
b) False

Question 25:

The problem space refers to a representation of the problem, including the goal.
a) True
b) False

Question 26:

Gestalt switches occur only in response to visual material.
a) True
b) False

Question 27:

Children aged 5 or younger are less likely to be functionally fixed than are older children.
a) True
b) False

Question 28:

Heuristics can be considered an example of a non-systematic algorithm.
a) True
b) False

Question 29:

One of the steps Newell (1977) recommends when analyzing a thinking-aloud protocol is the creation of a problem behaviour graph.
a) True
b) False

Question 30:

A way to avoid the Einstellung effect is through distributed reasoning.
a) True
b) False

Higher Education

Cognition, Sixth Edition: Chapter 10