Cognitive Encapsulation: Thinking Inside the Box

The repetitive, successful use of a particular method for tackling tasks significantly increases the likelihood that the method will be employed in approaching the next task. It is known, for example, that certain types of puzzles that stump most adults are more easily solved by children. To those who value education, a causal analysis of this dynamic may create some discomfort: Education, especially in specialized areas, channels our thought processes. We learn to eliminate from consideration problem-solving techniques that, in the past, have not borne fruit. In other words, our problem-solving successes are attributable, in large part, to the fact that education and experience teach us how to differentiate the important from the unimportant. We learn to think within the confines of a cognitive box. As a result, strategies that have produced success in the past are likely to lead to failure when that which, in the past, was unimportant, turns out, in today's context, to be quite important.