Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research and Everyday Experience, 3rd Edition

342 • CHAPTER 12 Problem Solving

difficult of the three steps to achieve. A number of experiments have shown that

the most effective source stories are those that are most similar to the target prob-

lem (Catrambone & Holyoak, 1989; Holyoak & Thagard, 1995). This similarity

could make it easier to notice the analogical relationship between the source story

and the target problem, and could also help achieve the next step—mapping.

2. Mapping the correspondence between the source story and the target problem.
   To use the story to solve the problem, the participant has to map correspond-
   ing parts of the story onto the test problem by connecting elements in one story
   (for example, the dictator’s fortress) to elements in the target problem (the
   tumor).


3. Applying the mapping to generate a parallel solution to the target problem. This
   would involve, for example, generalizing from the many small groups of soldiers
   approaching the fortress from different directions to the idea of using many weaker
   rays that would approach the tumor from different directions.

(a)

(c)

(b)

Shielding

Radioactive

cobalt-60

Helmet

Beam channel

Gamma rays

Tumor

●FIGURE 12.17 (a) Solution to the radiation problem. Bombarding the tumor, in the center,

with a number of low-intensity rays from diff erent directions destroys the tumor without

damaging the tissue it passes through. (b) Radiosurgery, a modern medical technique for

irradiating brain tumors with a number of beams of gamma rays, uses the same principle. The

actual technique uses 201 gamma ray beams. (c) How the general solved the fortress problem.

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