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Saturday, December 27, 2014

“Set” in Problem Solving, Simple Search (Hill Climbing), Chunking

“Set” in Problem Solving
         "set" = state of mind a person brings to a problem solving situation
         An inappropriate "set" can keep you from representing the problem in the most productive way, or from choosing the best solution strategy.

Simple Search (Hill Climbing)
Hill climbing strategy: For any particular state, carry out the operation that moves you closest to the final goal state. (often not a good strategy)
In the General Problem Solver, the program tests various actions (which Newell and Simon called operators) to see which will take it closer to the goal state. An operator is any activity that changes the state of the system. The General Problem Solver always chooses the operation that appears to bring it closer to its goal. This tactic is called hill climbing, because it resembles the tactic of always taking a step toward the top of a hill or mountain. Similarly, humans struggle toward long-term objectives "one day at a time." Progress through school can be represented as a problem space. As you complete each course in your curriculum, you take one step closer to the goal of obtaining a degree.


Chunking – bits of information are combined into meaningful units, or chunks, so that more information can be held in STM.

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