The verbalization of multiple strategies in a variant of the traveling salesperson problem

Authors: Tenbrink, T. and Wiener, J.

Journal: Cognitive Processing

Volume: 10

Issue: 2

Pages: 143-161

eISSN: 1612-4790

ISSN: 1612-4782

DOI: 10.1007/s10339-008-0225-z

Abstract:

What kinds of strategies do humans employ when confronted with a complex spatial task, and how do they verbalize these strategies? Previous research concerned with the well-known traveling salesperson problem (TSP) typically aimed at the identification of a generally applicable heuristics that adequately represents human behavior in relation to the abstract task of combining points. This paper adopts a novel perspective in two respects. On the one hand, it addresses the strategies people employ when confronted with a more complex task, involving distractors and feature information rather than identical points. On the other hand, retrospective linguistic representations of the strategies used are analyzed in relation to the behavioral data, using discourse analytic methods. Results show that both the behavioral results and the verbalizations point to a range of strategies related to those proposed for solving abstract TSPs. However, in contrast to earlier accounts in the literature, the participants employ a repertory of multi-faceted strategies and planning processes, simplifying and structuring the problem space across subtasks and processes in flexible ways. These findings provide further insight into the nature of human strategies in spatial problem solving tasks and their retrospective verbalization, highlighting how procedures generally known in the literature may be adapted to more complex tasks, and how they may be verbalized spontaneously. © 2008 Marta Olivetti Belardinelli and Springer-Verlag.

Source: Scopus

The verbalization of multiple strategies in a variant of the traveling salesperson problem.

Authors: Tenbrink, T. and Wiener, J.

Journal: Cogn Process

Volume: 10

Issue: 2

Pages: 143-161

eISSN: 1612-4790

DOI: 10.1007/s10339-008-0225-z

Abstract:

What kinds of strategies do humans employ when confronted with a complex spatial task, and how do they verbalize these strategies? Previous research concerned with the well-known traveling salesperson problem (TSP) typically aimed at the identification of a generally applicable heuristics that adequately represents human behavior in relation to the abstract task of combining points. This paper adopts a novel perspective in two respects. On the one hand, it addresses the strategies people employ when confronted with a more complex task, involving distractors and feature information rather than identical points. On the other hand, retrospective linguistic representations of the strategies used are analyzed in relation to the behavioral data, using discourse analytic methods. Results show that both the behavioral results and the verbalizations point to a range of strategies related to those proposed for solving abstract TSPs. However, in contrast to earlier accounts in the literature, the participants employ a repertory of multi-faceted strategies and planning processes, simplifying and structuring the problem space across subtasks and processes in flexible ways. These findings provide further insight into the nature of human strategies in spatial problem solving tasks and their retrospective verbalization, highlighting how procedures generally known in the literature may be adapted to more complex tasks, and how they may be verbalized spontaneously.

Source: PubMed

The verbalization of multiple strategies in a variant of the traveling salesperson problem

Authors: Tenbrink, T. and Wiener, J.

Journal: COGNITIVE PROCESSING

Volume: 10

Issue: 2

Pages: 143-161

eISSN: 1612-4790

ISSN: 1612-4782

DOI: 10.1007/s10339-008-0225-z

Source: Web of Science (Lite)

The verbalization of multiple strategies in a variant of the traveling salesperson problem

Authors: Tenbrink, T. and Wiener, J.

Journal: Cognitive Processing

Volume: 10

Issue: 2

Pages: 143-161

DOI: 10.1007/s10339-008-0225-z

Source: Manual

Preferred by: Jan Wiener

The verbalization of multiple strategies in a variant of the traveling salesperson problem.

Authors: Tenbrink, T. and Wiener, J.M.

Journal: Cogn. Process.

Volume: 10

Pages: 143-161

DOI: 10.1007/s10339-008-0225-z

Source: DBLP

The verbalization of multiple strategies in a variant of the traveling salesperson problem.

Authors: Tenbrink, T. and Wiener, J.

Journal: Cognitive processing

Volume: 10

Issue: 2

Pages: 143-161

eISSN: 1612-4790

ISSN: 1612-4782

DOI: 10.1007/s10339-008-0225-z

Abstract:

What kinds of strategies do humans employ when confronted with a complex spatial task, and how do they verbalize these strategies? Previous research concerned with the well-known traveling salesperson problem (TSP) typically aimed at the identification of a generally applicable heuristics that adequately represents human behavior in relation to the abstract task of combining points. This paper adopts a novel perspective in two respects. On the one hand, it addresses the strategies people employ when confronted with a more complex task, involving distractors and feature information rather than identical points. On the other hand, retrospective linguistic representations of the strategies used are analyzed in relation to the behavioral data, using discourse analytic methods. Results show that both the behavioral results and the verbalizations point to a range of strategies related to those proposed for solving abstract TSPs. However, in contrast to earlier accounts in the literature, the participants employ a repertory of multi-faceted strategies and planning processes, simplifying and structuring the problem space across subtasks and processes in flexible ways. These findings provide further insight into the nature of human strategies in spatial problem solving tasks and their retrospective verbalization, highlighting how procedures generally known in the literature may be adapted to more complex tasks, and how they may be verbalized spontaneously.

Source: Europe PubMed Central