Am I born a good problem solver?

Many people lie awake at night wondering how come they are not good at making decisions.

“Are people born naturally good at problem solving?” and “How do I become better at problem solving?”

are questions you probably ask yourself from time to time.

Scientists have spent years studying what makes someone a good problem solver. The answer is pretty much who cares. Yes everyone born has different baselines for emotions and skills, but you can still live a completely normal and functional life. For example everyone in the world has anxiety, people who suffer from an anxiety disorder have a different base line for anxiety causing them to feel anxiety more often in certain situations or from certain stimuluses. The same goes for problem solving. Besides being able to solve simple problems many people struggle with problem solving. I know when I am thirsty, I get a drink of water to quench that thirst. On the other hand, I have no clue how to solve advanced calculus. There are people in this world that know how to. They were not born able to solve advanced calculus, they were born with extreme intelligence, then they worked really hard, learned and practiced how to be good mathematicians.

Many scientists have proved problem solving is easier if they have experience in or are learning about the field they need to problem solve in. There was a experiment where random subjects ages from 4–6 were all given 2x3 inch pictures of things like clowns and lions and were also given a stimulus like a pencil or a rubber band. The pictures had the same pictures on front and back except one side was in color and the other side was a xerox copy of the picture in black and white. The subjects were told that certain objects went with certain picture cards. The objective was to train these kids to understand which objects went with which picture card. After the subject was able to match the object with the correct picture three times in a row the subject was able to move on to the second part of the experiment. The next part of the experiment was to add a star object and to train the subject to use the star object. This star object would lead the subject to the correct picture card eventually, but the subject had to solve that problem for their self. The subjects that failed this pretest were taught how to properly use the star object to get to the correct picture card. After this the subjects took a posttest, which was conducted in the same manner as the pretest. The results showed that the ones that failed the pretest ended up passing the posttest (Scandura 1977).This just shows that they subjects were able to learn through experience and practice to be able to solve the problems correctly.

“…where rules were both learned and available, and more generally where the effects of memory had been partialled out…had not effect on the ability to use these rules” (Scandura 1977). This quote states that no matter young the subjects were, they were able to salve the problem with the proper rules and training.

Experience and learning are still, so far, the best two ways to improve problem solving in a certain field.

Citations:

Scandura J. M., 1977, Problem solving :a structural/process approach with instructional implications, New York, Academic Press.