Editing Problem solving (section)

===Mental set===
{{Main|Mental set}}
Mental set is the inclination to re-use a previously successful solution, rather than search for new and better solutions. It is a reliance on habit.

It was first articulated by [[Abraham S. Luchins]] in the 1940s with his well-known water jug experiments.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Luchins|first=Abraham S.|year=1942|title=Mechanization in problem solving: The effect of Einstellung|journal=Psychological Monographs|volume=54|number=248|pages=i-95 |doi=10.1037/h0093502 }}</ref> Participants were asked to fill one jug with a specific amount of water by using other jugs with different maximum capacities. After Luchins gave a set of jug problems that could all be solved by a single technique, he then introduced a problem that could be solved by the same technique, but also by a novel and simpler method. His participants tended to use the accustomed technique, oblivious of the simpler alternative.<ref>{{cite journal | last1=Öllinger | first1=Michael | last2=Jones | first2=Gary | last3=Knoblich | first3=Günther | title=Investigating the Effect of Mental Set on Insight Problem Solving | journal=Experimental Psychology | publisher=Hogrefe Publishing Group | volume=55 | issue=4 | year=2008 | issn=1618-3169 | doi=10.1027/1618-3169.55.4.269 | pages=269–282 | pmid=18683624 | url=http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/23048/1/193183_1563%20Jones%20Postprint.pdf | access-date=2023-01-31 | archive-date=2023-03-16 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316064717/http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/23048/1/193183_1563%20Jones%20Postprint.pdf | url-status=live }}</ref> This was again demonstrated in [[Norman Maier]]'s 1931 experiment, which challenged participants to solve a problem by using a familiar tool (pliers) in an unconventional manner. Participants were often unable to view the object in a way that strayed from its typical use, a type of mental set known as functional fixedness (see the following section).

Rigidly clinging to a mental set is called ''fixation'', which can deepen to an obsession or preoccupation with attempted strategies that are repeatedly unsuccessful.<ref name="Wiley1998">{{cite journal|year=1998|title=Expertise as mental set: The effects of domain knowledge in creative problem solving|journal=Memory & Cognition|volume=24|issue=4|pages=716–730|doi=10.3758/bf03211392|pmid=9701964|last1=Wiley|first1=Jennifer|doi-access=free}}</ref> In the late 1990s, researcher Jennifer Wiley found that professional expertise in a field can create a mental set, perhaps leading to fixation.<ref name="Wiley1998" />

[[Groupthink]], in which each individual takes on the mindset of the rest of the group, can produce and exacerbate mental set.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cottam|first1=Martha L.|last2=Dietz-Uhler|first2=Beth|last3=Mastors|first3=Elena|last4=Preston|first4=Thomas|year=2010|title=Introduction to Political Psychology|edition=2nd|location=New York|publisher=Psychology Press}}</ref> Social pressure leads to everybody thinking the same thing and reaching the same conclusions.