Visual search light model for mental problem solving

This study compared individuals with pairs in a scientific problem-solving task. Participants interacted with a virtual psychological laboratory called Virtue to reason about a visual search theory. To this end, they created hypotheses, designed experiments, and analyzed and interpreted the results of their experiments in order to discover which of five possible factors affected the visual search process. Before and after their interaction with Virtue, participants took a test measuring theoretical and methodological knowledge. In addition, process data reflecting participants’ experimental activities and verbal data were collected. The results showed a significant but equal increase in knowledge for both groups. We found differences between individuals and pairs in the evaluation of hypotheses in the process data, and in descriptive and explanatory statements in the verbal data. Interacting with Virtue helped all students improve their domain-specific and domain-general psychological knowledge.

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Outcomes, Implications, and Concluding Thoughts

Masters of Craft ◽

10.23943/princeton/9780691165493.003.0010 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Richard E. Ocejo

Keyword(s):

Problem Solving ◽

Interpersonal Communication ◽

Culturally Relevant ◽

New Economy ◽

Manual Labor ◽

Cultural Understanding ◽

Knowledge Based ◽

Mental Problem ◽

Cultural Repertoires ◽

Career Options

This concluding chapter reviews the alternative paths for how workers are dealing with conditions of the precarious new economy. They are entering common occupations in everyday workplaces that people do not normally think of as knowledge-based or culturally relevant, and transforming them into high-end, quality jobs that fuse mental and manual labor and that people with other work opportunities see as viable career options. These workers experience manual labor as meaningful and even fun through the enactment of a set of cultural repertoires that allow for physical, bodily labor, challenging mental problem-solving, cultural understanding, and interpersonal communication. The jobs also require the confident performance of each of these work practices in concert, not independently of the others.

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Arousal and Cognition: Word Arousal and Visual Search

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.2466/pms.1976.43.3.699 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 43 (3) ◽

pp. 699-702

Author(s):

Frank H. Farley ◽

Shu-Jen Yen

Keyword(s):

Information Processing ◽

Visual Search ◽

Problem Solving ◽

Target Word ◽

High Speed ◽

Processing Time ◽

Search Task ◽

Visual Search Task ◽

Random Letter ◽

List Learning

The influence of target-word affective properties on information processing time in a high speed visual-search task was studied. The 24 words were embedded in random-letter matrices, with one word per matrix. Subjects (5 male, 5 female) were tested. Words extreme on emotionality (positive vs negative affect) yielded significantly longer latencies than neutral words. The results were discussed in the light of related list-learning and problem-solving research.

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Explaining Imaginal Inference by Operations in a Propositional Format

Perception ◽

10.1068/p070563 ◽

1978 ◽

Vol 7 (5) ◽

pp. 563-574 ◽

Cited By ~ 38

Author(s):

Richard N Wilton

Keyword(s):

Problem Solving ◽

Efficient Method ◽

Internal Representation ◽

Perceptual System ◽

Mental Problem ◽

Sensory Field ◽

The World

Solving problems by imaginal inference often seems inefficient for an organism that is manipulating propositions. One explanation for the apparent inefficiency is that the problems are being solved not in propositional format but by operations in an analogue format. Imaginal inference might then be the most efficient method compatible with the limitations inherent in the analogue format. In the present paper an alternative rationale is given for the use of imaginal inference by explaining how the processes involved in mental problem solving are related to those in perception: it is suggested that the mechanisms used in problem solving have evolved from a perceptual system in which hypotheses about events in the sensory field are generated from an internal representation of the world. This thesis denies that perception is passive and suggests that the capacity for thought is limited by its evolutionary dependence on mechanisms specialized originally for perception. Acceptance of the thesis implies that the capabilities of a propositional format in problem solving would be limited. This limitation could account for the apparently inefficient use of that format in imaginal inference.

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