ABSTRACT
Karl Duncker's classic research on problem solving provides some of the best examples to support the argument, although modern researchers sometimes fail to appreciate the insight and power of this research as a model of microdevelopmental analysis. The problems that Duncker studied were complex cognitively, requiring long-term planning, attention to many details, and organization of diverse means or strategies. One part of Duncker's framework for analyzing solutions of problems is the classic concept of hypothesis testing–that people approach problems by formulating a hypothesis about how a goal might be reached. In describing how hypotheses were chosen and elaborated and how different hypotheses interact in complex tasks, Duncker took a microdevelopmental approach and also foreshadowed what came to be called analysis by synthesis. Duncker's approach raised questions about a number of issues central to understanding problem solving and pointed in directions for answers to them as well.
