Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

I996 
LIBERTY
ONE CENT
IN
G
OD
WE TRU
ST
I996 
LIBERTY
ONE CENT
IN
G
OD
WE TRU
ST
I996 
LIBERTY
ONE CENT
IN
G
OD
WE TRU
ST
I996 
LIBERTY
ONE CENT
IN
G
OD
WE TRU
ST
I996 
LIBERTY
ONE CENT
IN
G
OD
WE TRU
ST
I996 
LIBERTY
ONE CENT
IN
G
OD
WE TRU
ST
I996 
LIBERTY
ONE CENT
c. Transformation problems
feL82795_ch08_240-275.indd Page 253 8/18/10 5:44 PM user-f464
feL82795_ch08_240-275.indd Page 253 8/18/10 5:44 PM user-f464

---

254 Chapter 
8 
Cognition and Language
REPRESENTING AND ORGANIZING THE PROBLEM 
A crucial aspect of the initial encounter with a problem is the way in which we represent 
it to ourselves and organize the information presented to us (Brown & Walter, 1993; 
Davidson, Deuser, & Sternberg, 1994). Consider the following problem: 
A man climbs a mountain on Saturday, leaving at daybreak and arriving at the top near 
sundown. He spends the night at the top. The next day, Sunday, he leaves at daybreak 
and heads down the mountain, following the same path that he climbed the day before. 
The question is this: Will there be any time during the second day when he will be at 
exactly the same point on the mountain as he was at exactly that time on the fi rst day? 
If you try to solve this problem by using algebraic or verbal representations, you 
will have a good deal of trouble. However, if you represent the problem with the 
kind of simple diagram shown in Figure 5, the solution will become apparent. 
Our ability to represent a problem—and the solution we eventually come to—
depends on the way a problem is phrased, or framed. Imagine that you were a cancer 
patient having to choose between surgery and radiation and were given the two sets 
of treatment options shown in Figure 6 (Tversky & Kahneman, 1987; Chandran & 
Menon, 2004). When the options are framed in terms of the likelihood of survival, 
only 18% of participants in a study chose radiation over surgery. However, when the 
choice was framed in terms of the likelihood of dying, 44% chose radiation over 
surgery—even though the outcomes are identical in both sets of framing conditions. 
Top
Altitude on mountain
Sunrise
Time of day
Sunday
Saturday
Sunset
Bottom
FIGURE 5 
You can solve the mountain-
climbing problem by using a graph. Keep 
in mind that the goal is not to determine 
the time but just to indicate whether an 
exact time exists. Consequently, the 
speed at which the traveler is moving is 
unimportant. Can you think of other 
approaches that might lead to a solution? 
(Source: Anderson, 1980.)
FIGURE 4 
Solutions to the problems in 
Figure 3 on page 253. 
(Source: Bourne & 
Dominowski, 
Cognitive Processes,
p. 268. 
Copyright © 1986 Prentice-Hall, Inc. 
Reproduced by permission of Pearson 
Education, Inc.)
IN
G
OD
WE TRU
ST