Psy 416: Reasoning and Problem Solving
Erwin Segal
Concepts of Association Theory
Association of elements
Automatic processes
Associative Principles
Contiguity
Similarity
Frequency
Habit family hierarchy
Stimulus generalization
Response selection
Positive Reinforcement
Negative reinforcement
Law of effect
Law of exercise
Connectionism
Input units
Hidden units
Output units
Excitatory connections
Inhibitory connections
Concepts of Information Processing
Information
Information processing
Effective procedure
Algorithm
Heuristic
Flow chart
Labeled edges or links
Choice rule
Recursion
Turing machine
Production systems
Church-Turing thesis
Problem solving methods
Random trial and error
Hill climbing
Forward chaining
Means-ends analysis
Subgoals
Goal stack
Problem space
Initial state
Moves or operations
Intermediate states
Goal states
Information processing system
Receptors
Processors
Memories
Effectors
Marr’s analysis
Computation
Algorithm
Implementation
Physical symbol systems—Newell and Simon
Device level
Circuit level
Logic level
Program level
PMS level—Structural or functional level
Propositional memory
Procedural memory
Reasoning
Logic
Valid argument
Sound argument
Formal reasoning
Content reasoning
Reasoning using schemas
Causal reasoning
Concepts of Gestalt Psychology
Gestalt
Wholes and parts
Structure
Learning by understanding
Productive thinking
Restructuring
Insight
Bad errors
Good errors
Rigidity
Reproductive thinking
Functional fixity
Schema Theory
Sense making
Frames
Leveling
Sharpening
Rationalization
Integrating components or parts
Conceptual structure
Finding known structure
Questions
1. Briefly define [concept]
2. What was William James's basis for an entity to have a mind?
3. What is the difference between a procedure and a problem according to Segal?
4. What is the Socratic method of teaching someone to solve a problem?
5.
What kind of evidence did Külpe and the
6. What is "insight" in reasoning in Gestalt Psychology?
7. What is the Gestalt notion of “restructuring” as problem solving?
8. Contrast the Gestalt notion of "parts" and the associationistic notion of "elements."
9. What does a Gestalt psychologist have in mind when s/he discussed the structural analysis of a problem?
10. When the chimpanzee tried to achieve a banana lying outside his cage in Kohler's experiments he made both "good" and "bad" errors. Explain the difference between good and bad errors?
11. Give a brief example of a structural analysis of a problem.
12. What is the Gestalt criticism of "stupid" application of rules? Give an example.
13. What is the Skinnerian notion of positive reinforcement?
14. By what principle might a habit family hierarchy be modified?
15. How might a connectionist explain why people see two possible cubes in the " Necker cube" rather than many ill-formed structures?
16. How do connectionists explain why people usually do not see that stimuli are ambiguous (such as the middle letter in the ‘THE CAT example)?
17. Describe a situation or an experiment in which schema theory is likely to give a wrong answer.
18. Describe a choice operation in the addition algorithm or the greatest common factor algorithm. Identify recursion in that algorithm.
19. What are some conclusions one may draw from the Church-Turing thesis?