Whitney tells her friend Jan that she can wear the extra jacket that she keeps in her car. Whitney hands Jan her keys and heads off to class. Jan heads to Whitney's car with the set of eight keys. She looks at the keys, noting that two are too small to be car keys, and then she looks for any key that might have a symbol associated with a particular car. She finds two keys that have a shape on them like the hood ornament on Whitney's car. So, these will be the first two keys of the eight that she will try. To solve this "key" problem, Jan used
A)functional fixedness.
B)an algorithm.
C)a heuristic.
D)rote learning.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Jan used a heuristic, which is a mental shortcut or rule of thumb that helps simplify decision making. By eliminating keys that were too small and focusing on keys with a specific symbol, she narrowed down her choices in a way that was quicker than trying every key (which would be an algorithm).

Whitney Tells Her Friend Jan That She Can Wear the Extra