Problem Finding: a Theoretical Note

Despite the self-evident role of problems in initiating thought and the function of new problems in guiding thought toward new solutions, very little is known about how problems are found and formulated. Although there are dozens of theoretical statements, hundreds of psychometric instruments, and literally thousands of empirical studies of problem solving, there is hardly any systematic work on problem finding (Getzels, 1964; Getzels, 1975; Henle, 1975; Getzels & Csikszentmihalyi, 1976). Indeed, Cognitive Science itself, to cite it as an instance of many other journals in the field of cognition, informs potential contributors that it publishes articles "on. such topics as the representation of knowledge, language processing, image processing, question answering, inference, learning, problem solving, and planning" (see "Information for Authom"), but fails to make any mention of "question asking" or "problem posing9'-as if questions and problems, l i e the weather, were just there naturally. The purpose of this nots-and it is to be taken only as a note--is to call attention to the dative neglect of the "problem of the problem" by offering some tentative observations regarding the significance of problem finding in thought, the nature and variety of problems, and the human being as problemfinder.