托福口语 Task 3

In psychology, the concept of 'functional fixedness' refers to a cognitive bias that limits a person to using an object only in its traditional manner. This mental block prevents individuals from seeing alternative uses for familiar items, thereby hindering problem-solving and creative thinking. When faced with a challenge, people often become fixated on an object's typical function and fail to recognize how it could be repurposed to solve the problem at hand.

Professor: Let me illustrate this with a classic experiment. Participants were given a box of thumbtacks, a candle, and a book of matches, and asked to attach the candle to a wall so that it could burn without dripping wax on the floor. Many struggled because they saw the box only as a container for the thumbtacks. The solution was to empty the box, tack it to the wall, and use it as a platform for the candle. Those who succeeded overcame functional fixedness by thinking of the box not just as a holder but as a shelf. Once they reframed its use, the problem became simple.