ABSTRACT
A problem consists of a discrepancy between the way things are the way one would like them to be. Adaptation often requires a problem-solving process in which an individual attempts to discover a strategy for attaining a specific objective.
Harlow demonstrated that a problem-solving strategy could be acquired by learning to solve many examples of the same type of problem. Researchers have demonstrated that prior experience can facilitate or impede problem-solving. An effective and efficient problem-solving strategy requires taking advantage of, but not being blinded by previous experience. A general problem-solving strategy consists of five stages: (1) general orientation, (2) problem definition and formulation, (3) generation of alternatives, (4) decision-making, and (5) verification.
Over the millennia, humans have combined their ability to learn with their ability to create tools and technologies to address adaptive challenges. The Law of Accelerating Returns describes how the pace of significant technological innovations has quickened over time as the result of written language and numbering systems. During the Stone Age, it took tens of thousands of years for the occurrence of transformational events. During the Bronze Age (3300–1200 BC) and Iron Age (1200–900 BC), it took thousands of years. During the first millennium A.D., inventions such as paper for writing and toiletry, the quill and fountain pen, guns and gunpowder, and the public library occurred approximately every hundred years. Since the industrial revolution, inventions affecting the processing and storage of food, sources of energy, 224transportation, communication, computing, and digitization, have increased to a pace requiring continual adaptive learning challenges during one’s lifetime.
