Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

part in this ability, and it does: Elite sol-
diers are highly trained in what to look for. 
But they also seem to manage their anxiety, 
process visual imagery, and interpret their 
own emotional reactions in ways that make 
them more sensitive to danger (Rachman, 
1990; Li et al., 2007). 
Keeping their anxiety at bay helps sol-
diers stay focused on the task of spotting 
bombs, and some ways they do this are by 
thinking of themselves as being on the of-
fensive rather than on the defensive and by 
identifying strongly with their units. Stud-
ies also show that well-trained troops tend 
to recover more quickly than others from 
the cortisol rush produced by a threat 
(Haslam et al., 2005). 
Heightened visual ability also plays a 
part. Highly-trained soldiers seem to be 
particularly sensitized to relevant visual 
images—they sometimes have an uncanny 
knack for picking up on subtle features or 
changes in the environment that may be 
clues to a threatening situation, and they 
tend to process this information faster than 
other people do (Carey, 2009b). 
In fact, the visual signals can be so sub-
tle and the soldiers can process them so 
quickly that they may sense danger with-
out consciously knowing what clues are 
telling them it exists. Studies of people 
who respond to threats in this manner 
show that the brain regions involved in de-
cision making and in interpreting bodily 
sensations to produce an emotion are par-
ticularly active. This heightened ability to 
process emotions has also been shown in 
trained soldiers (Clark et al., 2008). 
Consequently, when faced with the task 
of detecting stimuli that are nearly unde-
tectable, trained soldiers are able to make 
use of information that most of us would 
miss, and they do so quickly. The hunches 
that result often make the difference 
between life and death (Carey, 2009b; 
Gigerenzer, 2007).
• How might you train soldiers to better make use of their cognitive processes to 
respond effectively to dangerous situations?
• What relevance might the fi ndings about soldiers’ hunches and their ability to 
avoid danger have to other areas of life?
 RETHINK
Impediments to Solutions: 
Why Is Problem Solving 
Such a Problem?
Consider the following problem-solving test illustrated in Figure 8 (Duncker, 1945):
You are given a set of tacks, candles, and matches, each in a small box, and told your 
goal is to place three candles at eye level on a nearby door so that wax will not drip on 
the fl oor as the candles burn. How would you approach this challenge?
If you have diffi culty solving the problem, you are not alone. Most people cannot 
solve it when it is presented in the manner illustrated in the fi gure, in which the 
objects are inside the boxes. However, if the objects were presented beside the boxes, 
just resting on the table, chances are that you would solve the problem much more 
readily—which, in case you are wondering, requires tacking the boxes to the door 
and then placing the candles inside them (see Figure 10 on page 260). 
The diffi culty you probably encountered in solving this problem stems from its 
presentation, which misled you at the initial preparation stage. Actually, signifi cant 
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