Problem Solving and Decision Making

“ Oh Nooooo ! ! ! ! ! ”
“ Oh Yessssss ! ! ! ! ! ”

“Problem Solving refers to
active effort to discover what
must be done to achieve a
goal, that is not readily
attainable.”

 An initial state : The situation at the
beginning of the problem.
 A goal state : The solution to the Problem
 A set of Rules : That must be followed.
 A set of obstacles : That must be overcome.

1. Well or ill defined
I. Well defined Problems
 Clear and Structured
 Easily assessed
(For eg. Sudoku, Scrabbles)
II. Ill defined Problems
 Contrast
 Fuzzy and abstract
(For eg. First time writing a Research Paper)

2. Routine and Non Routine
I. Routine Problems
 Solved by applying well practiced procedure
( For eg. Students of IIIrd Year)
II. Non-Routine Problems
 Solved by fresh procedure
(For eg. Students of Ist Semester )

1. Problem solving as Associative Learning
Pavlov's
experiment Skinners box Albert Bandura
Operant
conditioning
Classical
conditioning
Observational
learning
Stimulus-response
learning
Before conditioning
Light(CS) NR
Food(US) Salivation(UR)
During Conditioning
Light(CS)
.
Food(UR) Salivation(UR)
After conditioning
Light(CS) Salivation(CR)

2. Problem solving as Information Processing
Perception
Attention
Encoding
Consolidation
Encoding
Attention Memory
Executive
function
Cognitive
function
Storage
Retrieval
stimulus
Sensory
organs
Sensory
memory
STM
LTM
Ears Eyes Skin Nose Mouth
Echo Sight Texture Smell Taste
Repetition
Retrieval
Forgetting

Problems in Solving a Problem !!!
Factors influencing Problem Solving
Mental Set
Training
Functional
Fixedness
Nature of
Problem
Anxiety
Span of
Attention
Frames
Creativity
Insight
Reasoning

Decision Making is a step/ kind of Problem
Solving in which we are presented with
several alternatives (like different costs,
benefits and consequences) among which we
must choose.

 Expected Utility Theory
 Prospect Theory

 The expected utility of the outcome
 And their respected probability
Utility refers to whatever end a person would like to achieve, be
it happiness, money or something else.
According to Barron (1999), Good might be a better word to use
According to Broome (1991), An amount of good that comes
out of a decision.

 Situation 1: Flip a Coin
Your Choice:
 If it turn up heads, you get Rs. 100
 Situation 2: Roll a Dice
Your Choice:
 If it comes up specific no. 4, you will get Rs.
150
 Out of the two alternatives whichever,
provides the best combination of “Good”
and “likelihood of occurring” will be the one
we choose.

Prospect Theory, a descriptive model assumes
that people make decisions based on what
they have right now and interpret gains and
losses on different scales, losses being more
psychologically powerful.
 This theory predicts the framing effect,
whereby people are Risk Averse when faced
with certain gains and Risk prone when faced
with certain losses.

1. Behaviorist Perspective: Interaction with the environment.
• Attention : How we selected important information
from the environment.
• Knowledge : The store of general and important
information for performing task.
• Memory : A process for storing, retrieving, & working
with information.
• Decision Making : Set of higher level of processes that work
together allow us to function day to day.
• Consciousness : Once awareness

2. Cognitive Perspective :
Information Processing And Decision Making
Controll
ed
Thinking
Experience
and
Knowledge
Consider
All Options
Assess,
Risk,
Judge,
Choose,
Act
Check and Re-Assess
Situation
Situational
Awareness

Decision making is a reasoning and emotional
process which can be rational or irrational
and can be based on explicit assumption and
tacit assumption.

3. Psychosocial Perspective: Individual Decision
in the Context of -
 A set of needs
 Individual performance
 His values

4. Normative Perspective: Logic of Decision
Making

Identify Objective
Collect Information and Ideas
Analyze Information and Ideas
Choose Course of Action / Making Decision
Communicate and Carry out Decisions
Outcome and Result
Check
relevant
informati
on & be
up to date
Evaluate
This stage is
essential
because it
revealed that
the decision
have been
effective

GENERAL METHODS OF PROBLEM SOLVING
1. Algorithms
2. Heuristics
( In which we have to decide which we have to choose
or apply to solve the problem.)

 Set of rules that can be applied systematically
to solve certain type of problem.
 Ex-
 Mathematical formula
 Cross words
 Sudoku

Strategies that may help to produce correct
solution.
(Not grantee the solution is the reason of wrong decisions, but
allow us to have an idea)
Basic Heuristics
1. Representative Heuristics
2. Availability Heuristics
3. Anchoring/Adjustment Heuristics

Person trying to decide where the current
situation make represent the previous related
situation which they experienced.
trying to relate characteristics of current
situation to his mental representative
characteristics of the situation.

For example:
A person have to make decision on the basses of
representative heuristics is whether the given
characteristics of a male or female??
 Long hairs
 Black eyes
 High heals
 5.5 inch height
 Wearing sari
Male Female

 Example 2:
Whether the person is a truck driver or a
professor??
1st description  2nd description
 Wearing Glasses  Wearing Dhoti- kurta
 Drink Tea &Coffee  Smoking
 Using Library  Using Radio
 Having Books  Having License
Truck-driver Professor Truck-driver Professor

A person response to those things which are
easily available in their memory.
Example 1:
When we ask a psychology student to give or
recall 10 names of psychologists or 10 names of
economist???
(Most probably he recall 10 names of psychologists then
economists because psychologists name are easily available
in his mind then economists.)

Example2:
Suppose a group of students read a story
about a women being attracted by a shark
and another group read about a women
winning the lottery.
we asked questions about both the cases???
(1st group of students are probably more able to answer the
question about the women being attested by a shark and 2nd
group is more able to answer questions being asked about
the women win lottery.)

 We make an approximation about something
(to anchor it), once its anchored, we then
make some adjustments with the additional
information and then take final decision.
Example 1: When we ask a student -
How many hairs you have in your head??
[Average 12000]
(His answer may be around 12650 or 11999 something)

 Example 2 :
How many hurricanes comes last year ??
Group A : given average of 50
Result: 60 hurricanes last year
Group B : given average of 10
Result: 6 hurricanes last year
(Therefore we can see how responses differed from
two groups when they anchored there available
information.)

Condition apply:
 Like most heuristics anchor/adjustment
heuristic can be helpful but if the anchor is
misleading ….it may lead down the wrong
path.

NOW
Problem!!!! No Problem
when you take
Good Decisions
It May lead you too
The
Good Solution

Problem Solving and Decision Making

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