Watch and learn! Carefully selected media links will help bring key concepts and theories to life, preparing you for your studies and exams. 

Click on the following links which will open in a new window.

Video Links

• Problem Solving Strategies
  This video explores a technique for solving “word problems” in math.

• Functional Fixedness - Funny Examples
  From the popular podcast “The Psych Files” come these great examples of overcoming functional fixedness.

• Analogy as the Core of Cognition
  Cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter’s presidential lecture on the importance of analogy in cognition. The lecture runs a little over an hour, but you can use parts in class without using the entire lecture.

Audio Links

• Collaboration Beats Smarts in Group Problem Solving.
  Can groups solve problems more efficiently than smart individuals? All Things Considered considers research being done at Carnegie Mellon on the advantages of multiple “heads” working together.

• Solving Puzzles Satisfies the Nimble Brain.
  Why are puzzles so popular? Will Short and other puzzle creators are interviewed in this piece from Talk of the Nation, which also features a nice maze from the New York Times.

• “How Creativity Works”: It’s All in Your Imagination.
  A neuroscience writer, Jonah Lehrer, addresses the question of “what makes people creative?” in this piece from All Things Considered.

Web Resources

• Brain Teaser problems
  This page of brain teasers is organized into puzzles, games, illusions, logic games, and “fun stuff.”
  Follow-up exercise: Choose one of the brain teasers that is not covered in the textbook, and ask students to solve it and comment on the methods that they used to solve it.

• More Brain Teasers
  This collection is designed for kids, but can challenge any age.
  Follow-up exercise: Try the “learn more about your brain” link for a simple graphic on parts of the brain and what they do.