Question

Zelma is asked to think of all the words she can, beginning with the letters "squ," as in "squeak." later she is given a fill-in-the-blank task on which one of the items is "s _ _ o n g." zelma keeps trying to make "squong" a word, and has trouble thinking of the common word "strong." zelma's ability to solve this problem has been hampered by: a mental set. confirmation bias. functional fixedness. an algorithm.

Answer 1

This is an example of a mental set, which can sometimes be a useful framework for solving problems. In Zelma's case though, her mental set is limited to certain words and she is unable to think of possibilities outside of that set.