The psychology of problem solving

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1. wrpOct 2025
   Problem solving is a well-explored field in experimental psychology. TFA is a bit unfocused, making both some generally supported speculations and some traditional ideas that haven't been supported. A very good survey is the edited volume, The Psychology of Problem Solving (Davidson 2003).

   Although TFA doesn't refer to it by name, "insight" problem solving is when you are stuck on something and then suddenly realize the solution. The common explanation for being stuck is "fixation" on the wrong things. In agreement with TFA, there is indication that verbalization supports fixation more than visualization.

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2. mixuNov 2011
   How about some books that aren't pop-sci / business books? I am kind of biased, since I love this area of psychology.

   - The Sciences of the Artificial by Simon

   - The Psychology of Problem Solving by Davidson & Sternberg

   - The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance (Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology) by Ericsson, Charness, Feltovich & Hoffman

   - Minds, Brains and Computers - The Foundations of Cognitive Science: An Anthology (Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies)

   - Choices, Values, and Frames by Kahneman & Tversky

   The Sciences of the Artificial is a small but deep book by Herbert Simon, who is considered a key figure in founding the study of these areas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Simon ).

   Davidson & Sternberg focuses on problem solving (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sternberg ).

   The Cambridge Handbooks (there are many others) in particular are excellent as they contain classic articles in Cognitive Science and Psychology, with introductions and overviews by people who actually research this area. The one on Expertise and Expert performance is edited by K. A. Ericsson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._Anders_Ericsson )

   Minds, Brains and Computers is another collection of classics, from a more model-based perspective.

   Finally, Kahneman and Tversky offer a more economics-centric viewpoint. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Kahneman & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_Tversky )

   If you read scientific articles in this area, you'll notice that many of these author's names will keep popping up...

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3. arijoJun 2024
   There is this book, The Psychology of Problem Solving that addresses these and a lot more strategies and heuristics that people use to solve complex problems.

   I wrote a brief review of the book in case you're curious about its contents.

   You can access it here: https://www.thebookwormsburrow.com/p/review-of-the-psycholog...

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4. wiki_meSep 2021
   > In sum: DP simply has too high a bar to clear. Want to do DP? Well, has there been a few decades of pedagogical development in your field so that you can be coached like with chess or math or tennis? NO? Ok, you're tough out of luck. No DP for you!

   I actually read "The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance" and if i recall correctly it's not that simple, , Expert practitioners can develop themselves better methods (it is argued the reason world records keep getting broken is not because our genes become better but because of better training methods ) , the main thing about deliberate practice is detecting points you can improve (e.g. failing to answer a coding question in a job interview), developing a method to improve the sub skill (trying at home with less stress and more time, going over a piece of knowledge you forgot, e.g. how BFS works), going over "socially accepted good enough" to "the best you can be" (e.g. you might fail some interviews and think maybe the interviewers don't like you, or you could double check your answer and find better solutions which might help if you will interview to more demanding companies such as facebook or google).

   There is another interesting book called "the psychology of problem solving" (see http://www.al-edu.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Davidson-St...) where Ericsson argues iirc that deliberate practice is a form of problem solving.

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