Question

Maurice and Abdul conduct research on heuristics for solving a particularly challenging problem. Each heuristic under study gets stuck on twelve local optima. Which of the following would be evidence that these two heuristics are diverse?

A) They both converge to the same local optima.
B) Maurice's heuristic converges to the local optima while Abdul's heuristic does not.
C) Maurice's heuristic converges to six different local optima while Abdul's heuristic converges to six other different local optima.
D) They both get stuck on twelve different local optima.

Answer 1

The evidence of diverse heuristics between Maurice and Abdul would be that their heuristics converge to different sets of local optima, indicating distinct problem-solving strategies.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question is asking for evidence that would indicate the diversity of heuristics used by Maurice and Abdul in their problem-solving research. Heuristics are cognitive shortcuts or rules of thumb that enable individuals to make decisions quickly, often at the expense of accuracy or completeness.

If Maurice's heuristic converges to six different local optima and Abdul's heuristic converges to six other different local optima, this would indicate that the heuristics they use are diverse. This is because each heuristic is leading to different outcomes, suggesting they employ different problem-solving strategies or considerations.

Therefore, the answer to the research question would be:

C) Maurice's heuristic converges to six different local optima while Abdul's heuristic converges to six other different local optima.

This shows that their heuristics are not overlapping and are, in fact, diverse in their approach to solving the challenging problem, as they get stuck on different sets of local optima.