ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at problems that are designed by psychologists and studied in laboratory settings. It focuses on various approaches to understanding non-adversarial problems before examining problem-solving in real life. Problems can also be categorised as adversarial or non-adversarial. Non-adversarial problems are problems in which an individual or a group is required to find the solution to a problem but there is no competition with others. Adversarial problems involve competition with other people and the goal is to defeat your opponent. Some of the earliest psychological research into problem-solving was performed by Gestalt psychologists at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Gestalt psychologists argued that there are a number of possible negative effects of past experience and reproductive thinking such as problem-solving set and functional fixedness. Much of the information-processing approach to problem-solving stems from the work of Newell and Simon. Newell and Simon used these ideas to develop a computer program called the General Problem Solver (GPS).
