Two-cord problem Birch and Rabinowitz (1951)Birch, H.G., & Rabinowitz, H.S. (1951). "The negative effect of previous experience on productive thinking". Journal of Experimental Psychology, 41, 121-125. adapted the two-cord problem from Norman Maier (1930, 1931), where subjects would be given 2 cords hanging from the ceiling, and 2 heavy objects in the room. They are told they must connect the cords, but they are just far enough apart that one cannot reach the other easily. The solution was to tie one of the heavy objects to a cord and be a weight, and swing the cord as a pendulum, catch the rope as it swings while holding on to the other rope, and then tie them together. The participants are split into 3 groups: Group R, which completes a pretask of completing an electrical circuit by using a relay, Group S, which completes the circuit with a switch, and Group C which is the control group given no pretest experience. Group R participants were more likely to use the switch as the weight, and Group S were more likely to use the relay. Both groups did so because their previous experience led them to use the objects a certain way, and functional fixedness did not allow them to see the objects as being used for another purpose.
The Two-Cords Puzzle Birch and Rabinowitz (1951)Birch, H.G., & Rabinowitz, H.S. (1951). "The negative effect of previous experience on productive thinking". Journal of Experimental Psychology, 41, 121-125. adapted the two-cord problem from Norman Maier (1930, 1931), where subjects would be given 2 cords hanging from the ceiling, and 2 heavy objects in the room. They are told they must connect the cords, but they are just far enough apart that one cannot reach the other easily. The solution was to tie one of the heavy objects to a cord and be a weight, and swing the cord as a pendulum, catch the rope as it swings while holding on to the other rope, and then tie them together. The participants are split into 3 groups: Group R, which completes a pretask of completing an electrical circuit by using a relay, Group S, which completes the circuit with a switch, and Group C which is the control group given no pretest experience. Group R participants were more likely to use the switch as the weight, and Group S were more likely to use the relay. Both groups did so because their previous experience led them to use the objects a certain way, and functional fixedness did not allow them to see the objects as being used for another purpose.
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Two-cord problem
The Two-Cords Puzzle