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EXPLORING HUMAN PROBLEM SOLVING

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements in Cognitive Psychology
PSYCH 005

Presented to
Mr. Leo Gerard Caral
Subject Facilitator

By
AQUINO, Pauline Krisha
OROSCO, Janna Jeck
PEÑAFLOR, Ma. Eliah Krischelle

BLOCK B

May 20, 2023

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Problem-solving

The term problem is defined by J. Linhart (1976) as an interactive relation

between a subject and its surroundings, which incorporates the inner conflict that is

solved by the subject by searching for transitions from the initial condition to the final

condition (aim). Problem-solving and its cause are defined in the work of Funke (2010)

who stated that the person’s initial knowledge of the problem is the conditions (the given

state). The operations are permissible activities that can be performed in order to achieve

the required final state (result) with the help of available instruments. On the way to the

aim are standing obstacles that have to be overcome (e.g. the lack of knowledge or the

directly obvious strategies). The process of overcoming the obstacles can include not

only cognitive but also motivational and emotional aspects.

Procedures

We decided to choose “Missionaries and Cannibals” as a problem-solving task

we are going to provide to the participants. First, we introduced the “problem” to be

solved by the participant wherein both missionaries and cannibals must cross the river

safely. Boats can ride up to three people. If the number of cannibals is more than the

number of missionaries anywhere, missionaries will be eaten. They only had 5 attempts

to solve the problem. We recorded the attempts they had and the time duration in solving

the problem.
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Results and Discussions

Results

Participant Attempts Time Duration Status

1 1 43 seconds PASSED

2 1 58 seconds PASSED

3 4 1st attempt: 1 minute and 31 seconds FAILED

2nd attempt: 2 seconds FAILED

3rd attempt: 50 seconds FAILED

4th attempt: 1 minute and 25 seconds PASSED

Both Participants 1 and 2 passed on the first attempt, with Participant 1

completing it in 43 seconds and Participant 2 completing it in 58 seconds. On the other

hand, Participant 3 failed the first attempt in 1 minute and 31 seconds, the second attempt

failed in 2 seconds, and the third attempt failed in 50 seconds. Finally, on the 4th attempt,

Participant 3 completed it in 1 minute and 25 seconds.

Discussions

Missionaries and Cannibals is a well-structured problem that has specific goals,

a clearly defined solution paths, and clear expected solutions. There are 3 participants

and they have 5 attempts to solve the missionaries and cannibals game. Each attempt is

timed to get the time they consume in each attempt. Based on the results of the 3
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participants, it shows that Participants 1 and 2 solve the game in just the first attempt in

less than a minute and Participant 3 got four attempts in three minutes and forty-eight

seconds which took a bit longer compared to Participants 1 and 2.

In conclusion, Participants 1 and 2 solve the problem right away while Participant

3 struggled in solving the problem. That concludes Participants 1 and 2 is focusing on

accurate information about the problem more than Participant 3 who pays more attention

to the wrong information. The factors that might be influenced in the accuracy and

inaccuracy are possibly distractions both externally and internally, not listening

attentively to the instructions given, not being in his/her best mental and emotional state

to solve the problem, or lack of capacity to understand easily the instructions.

In thoughts and general feeling state, Participants 1 and 2 is like more chill and

determined to answer immediately the game for them to know the patterns or ways of

solving the game like figuring out how to solve the game than really solving the game

and Participant 3 is more anxious and distracted while solving the game, focusing more

on solving the game than figuring out how to solve the game.

References

Funke, J. (2010). Complex problem solving: A case for complex cognition? Cognitive

Processing, Vol. 11, 133–142

Linhart, J. (1976). Činnost a poznávání. Academia. Praha

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Appendix