ABSTRACT
In one sense everything author concentrates on so far can be thought of as problem-solving. On the face of it this sounds like a suitably general characterization of all problem-solving activities. In order to avoid routine problem-solving, psychologists tend to use tasks which are sufficiently puzzling to stimulate people into displaying active and sustained problem-solving behaviour, giving experimenters some behaviour to observe and measure. Another way of 'externalizing' problem-solving strategies is to write computer programs which ape human problem-solving abilities. Within an information processing framework Simon has characterized problem-solving as requiring an interaction between an information processing system, a task environment and a problem space. The little puzzles favoured by problem-solving researchers tend to play down the role of prior experiences. However, individuals react very differently in problem-solving experiments, some continuing to wresde with problems, others accepting hints, others giving up altogether.
