♦ Teach Your Mind To Think ♦

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◄ You struggle with a problem, but cannot solve it. Then someone else finds the solution, and — behold — it's "obvious." What did you do wrong? How could you do better? Here are some practical suggestions ►

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For more than 100 years, psychologists have been studying the thinking process in solving problems. They have watched rats release themselves from puzzle boxes; observed chimpanzees use a stick to reach bananas outside a cage; seen how children mix color-less fluids to find the combination that produces a yellow liquid.

As experimental psychologists, they surveyed this mountain of data to learn whether such laboratory studies, in far from natural settings, have any relevance for solving the problems that coup up in everyday activities. It seems to them now that there may be a common thread. The stumbling block that appears again and again in both laboratory and "real life" is failure to make use of information at hand.

A homely old illustration of this concerns a truck that become wedged in an underpass. Onlookers suggested various ways of extricating it, but all involved major alteration — either of the truck or the underpass. Then a little boy came up with a simple solution: let some air out of the tires! Many such examples of problem-solving exist in the world of science and invention. All make the same point: a solution, once stated, becomes "obvious."

How can a person have all the necessary information and not be able to use it? The answer seems to lie in the fact that the brain, like the computer, is divided into a shortage unit and a processing unit. Although the storage unit can hold a vast amount of information, the capacity of the processing unit is limited. The average person is able to retain and repeat back only about seven un-related digits. This suggests that the processing unit can handle no more than about seven independent items of information at a time. Because any problem of consequence probably involves more elements than that, elements, or combinations can easily be overlooked.

Furthermore, the individual may start his search for a solution by looking at the wrong elements. As he does so, he places them in a tentative organization — and this may block him from a better approach. Think of the truck. Your attention is directed to its top, for that is where the problem is. And, if your thoughts are thuis channeled, that is where you look for the solution.

We do not know in advance what may be the right direction to look. But the problem-solver is more likely to hit upon itif he tries various approaches.

Here are six working preceots to aid in sloving problems. Three are preventive, to help you keep from getting your attention fixed on an incorrect line of reasoning; three are remedial, to help you if you find yourself stuck.

• Precept 1. Run over the elements of the problem rapidly several times, until a pattern emerges which encompasses them all.

The above helps you get the "total picture" before you become lost in details. Descartes, the 17th century French philosopher, in his Rules for the direction of the mind, put it this way: "Knowing the relationship of A to B, then B to C, and C to D, does not help me see the relationship between A and D — unless i recall all the others. To remedy this, I run over them from time to time, keeping the imagination moving continuously, until I can pass from the first to the last so quickly that I seem to have the whole in intuition before me at one time."

As the German physicist Hermann L. F. von Helmholtz said more than 200 years later: "It is necessary, first of all, to turn my problem over over on all sides, so that I have all its angles and complexitiesin my head, and can run through them freely without writing them down."

• Precept 2. Suspend judgment.

The above rule keeps you from getting trapped into clinging to the first interpretation that comes to mind. Consider an experiment carried out by psychologists Jerome S. Bruner and Marcy C. Potter: If an individual wrongly identifies the object while it is far out of focus, frequently he cannot identify it correctly even when it is brought sufficiently into focus for another person to recognize it easily. This seems to say: more evidence is required to overcome an incorrect hypothesis than to establish a correct one. He who jumps to conclusions is less sensitive to new information.

• Precept 3. Rearrange the elements of your problem.

Frequently the solution to a difficult problem appears after a slight physical rearrangement. In Wolfgang Kohler's famous experiments with chimpanzees, a banana was hung outside one chimp's cage, just beyond his reach. A stick was available to the chimp, but it was behind him, where he could not see it when he looked at the banana. Later, when the chip was idly playing with the stick, it and the banana accidentally became part of the same field of vision. The chimp instantly made the connection and, using the stick as a tool to extend his reach, obtained the tempting fruit.

• Precept 4. If you are getting nowhere, try a new approach.

The "direction" a person takes in seeking a solution, depends on what he sees the problem to be. In one experiment, Dr. Maier gives his subject the task of tying together the ends of two strings of different length suspended from the ceiling. The strings are so located that the subject cannot reach one while holding the other. One reaction is to see the problem as shortness of reach; the subject's "direction," then, is to look for a stick to lengthen his reach. Others see the problem as a shortness of string and strive to make one of the strings longer. Neither solution works.

Some subjects finally see the problem in terms of getting one string to come to them. They tie an object to the end of the long string and make it swing like a pendulum. As it swings toward them, they catch it and tie it to the short string.

Maier learned from this test that good reasoners do not persist in one direction if they find themselves getting nowhere. Rather, they jump from one direction to another so they find a solution.

• Precept 5. Take a break!

Does it do any good? The answer is a qualified "yes." It seems to depend on the timing of its application. If you are really stuck — that is, if you have explored all the possibilities of your present approach thoroughly and can think of no other approach — this would seem to be a good time to take a break. But itf you have not given an approach sufficient thought, the break may not help.

• Precept 6. Discuss your problem with others.

In talking over the problem with someone else, you are forced to consider the aspects that you might otherwise skip over. The presence of a listener provides a powerful feedback mechanism which quickly exposes obscure or inconsistent points in your reasoning.

In general, these prospects can be reduced to two: Look before you leap. Then, if you find yourself bogged down, try another approach. Remember, you can not force a solution to come to mind. So, keep your mind open for new combinations and do not waste time on repeated unsuccessful attempts. As Dr. Maier says, "Reasoning, at least in part, is the overcoming of habit."