Approaches to Problem Solving – Part 2

Need help preparing for the Psych/Soc section of the MCAT? MedSchoolCoach expert, Ken Tao, will teach you Part 2 about approaches to problem solving. Watch this video to get all the MCAT study tips you need to do well on the psychology section of the exam! Analogical Thinking Analogical thinking is an approach to problem-solving where an analogy is identified between the current problem and another problem that has been solved. This allows for the use of a solution that worked for a different problem. In a study done in the 1980s by two psychologists, Gick and Holyoak, the participants were presented with the following problem, “a patient has a tumor that can’t be operated on. High power radiation will destroy the tumor but will also damage the healthy tissues surrounding the tumor. Lower power radiation won’t damage the healthy tissues, but it also won’t destroy the tumor. How can the tumor be destroyed?” Most participants could not come up with a solution, so the researchers presented them with the story of the Fortress Problem. After being presented with this story, many more participants were able to provide the correct solution to the tumor problem, which is convergence. Instead of using a high power laser that would damage the surrounding tissue, lower power radiation can be used and directed at the tumor from multiple directions. With this approach, the radiation will converge at the tumor, so only the tumor will be destroyed, not the healthy tissues. This example shows how analogical thinking or reasoning can be used to solve problems. Changing Problem Representation Another problem solving approach is changing the representation of the problem, which is helpful after failing to solve a problem in its original representation. Problems can be represented in many ways, such as with a flowchart, table, graph, list, or math equation. For example, in The Monk Problem, a monk sets out at sunrise to climb up a mountain to reach a temple at the summit. On the next day, he leaves the temple and descends the mountain at sunrise. If he travels faster going downhill than uphill, there is a point on the mountain that the monk will reach at the same time of day on both trips. How can it be demonstrated that there is a point on the mountain that the monk will cross on both trips at the same time of day? This is hard to accomplish with the problem represented as a text. However, if this problem is represented as a graph, the x-axis can be the time of day and the y-axis can be the position on the mountain. The slow uphill trip and the faster downhill trip can be graphed as lines, and the point where the two lines cross represents the monk’s point at the same time of day on both trips. This is an example of how changing the representation of a problem can make it easier to solve. MEDSCHOOLCOACH To watch more MCAT video tutorials like this and have access to study scheduling, progress tracking, flashcard and question bank, download MCAT Prep by MedSchoolCoach IOS Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.htd.medschoolcoach&hl=en_US Apple Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mcat-prep-by-medschoolcoach/id1503000883 #medschoolcoach #MCATprep #MCATstudytools