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problem solving
You use the same solution for different problems.
You will stick to an inefficient solution for a problem because it worked on previous ones.
Once you establish a successful method, you become blind to simpler alternatives. You effectively ignore the unique characteristics of new tasks to conserve cognitive effort.
Your past success is often the barrier to your next insight.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Luchins, 1942
- What the check found
- This describes the 'Einstellung effect' studied in Luchins' 1942 monograph, Mechanization in Problem Solving, which showed that people persist with learned methods even when they are inefficient for new tasks.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.