TPO 7 - Integrated essay

The reading passage and the article are both about the topic of problem solving. More specifically they approach the so called "functional fixdness" problem from a similar perspective.

In the lecture, the Professor is explaning how to take a break is a good strategy in order to pass over the "functional fixedness". She claims that it is not healthy nor helpful to keep focusing on a given matter when we are exhausted. She adducts some reasons for that. First of all, rest is good as it allow us to see thing differently with a new perspective. We are used to repeat to ourselves or to our colleagues "sleep on" when a problem is difficult to solve. Secondly, by taking a break or doing a nap, we can easily move our attention on a different manner.

Moreover, the Professor reports the case of the "incubation effect". This can be considered another goodside of taking a break. Indeed, there are some reports that sustain the advantage of the incubation effect in finding a productive way to solve a particular problem. The Professor quotes the anedotte of Kekule. This is a perfect example of how erasing mental sets can turn in new winner intuition. Kekule has a revelation about the structure of the benzene while he was dreaming of a snake. Suddenly, as he was awake he realized that the connection of the carbon atoms in the benzene resemble to the structure of a ring.

As it is stated in the article, changing mental sets is required in order to explore new alternatives avoiding the mistake of being fixed in given strategies. Overall, both the author of the article and the lecturer agree on the fact that most people tend to see problems, objects and events in fixed ways, with some preconcepts.