Visual Thinking Research

Puzzle #1: The Cat

My roommate's attempt:

My roommate, Rebecca, chose to start with the most simple, noticeable triangles first, starting with the body, then the tail, and finally ending with the complexity of the head. This strategy is categorization because she chooses similarly shaped triangles and categorizes them based on complexity. Rebecca succeeded in counting all 18 triangles.

My attempt:

I chose a similar approach of categorization. However, I did not categorize based on level of complexity - I categorized by each body part of the cat in a directional matter. I started with bigger triangles in the head-shaped area, then moved to the smaller triangles. Then I traveled to the body of the cat, and again, I began with the big triangle and ended in smaller triangles. As I moved on to the tale, I followed the direction that the triangles were pointing until I reached the tip of the tale. I missed two triangles - I counted the two small triangles (per each eye) but did not count the larger triangles that they make.

Puzzle #2: The Squares

Rebecca's attempt:

Rebecca's strategy for solving this puzzle incorporated categorization. She started with the biggest square, then moved on to the center squares. As she was outlining the center squares, she saw that two of each side of the four small center squares made up half of a larger square. She successfully counted 11 squares.

My attempt:

My strategy for solving this puzzle also incorporated categorization. I started with the four squares along the outer edges (connected to the four center squares) and then moved on to count the smallest sized squares. I then counted the largest square and finally the large square that the four center squares make up. I successfully counted 11 squares.