You Have a Pair of Pliers and a Bag of Nuts

question 292

Multiple Choice

You have a pair of pliers and a bag of nuts in the shell.You are lamenting the fact that you can't shell the nuts because you do not have a nutcracker.Your inability to perceive the pliers as a makeshift nutcracker demonstrates ____ on your part.

• A) functional fixedness
• B) mental set
• C) insight insufficiency
• D) heuristic reasoning

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Definitions:

ERPs

Event-Related Potentials, which are measured brain responses that are the direct result of a specific sensory, cognitive, or motor event.

Stimuli

External or internal factors that elicit a response from a biological organism, which can be sensory, such as light and sound, or psychological, such as events or conditions that provoke reactions.

Endorphins

Natural chemicals produced by the body that interact with opiate receptors in the brain to reduce pain and boost feelings of pleasure or euphoria.

Evolutionary Advantage

A characteristic that enhances the survival or reproduction of organisms that possess it, relative to those that do not.