It did not take me too long to actually realise that this problem cannot be solved. However it took me sometime to verify my conclusion.

2. Document briefly your thinking – including all the important intermediate steps and failing attempts (i.e., create a "think-aloud protocol")

At first I reasoned whether it is even possible to solve the problem considering the fact that two squares were removed from the board. I realised in the begining itself that just "trial and error" i.e. trying all possible combinations was not a good approach to the problem. I first considered all the constraints to the problem, how many blocks were to be used, how many squares were to be filled, what directions could the domino blocks be placed etc. While seeing these "rules of the game" I realised that since the domino blocks had to placed either horizontally or vertically and the squares had been removed diagonally it was not possible to fill the board with 31 domino blocks. At any point and time there will be atleast one block that cannot be filled.

After having reasoned this out mentally, I had to verify this on paper. So I took multiple copies of this problem and tried all possible combinations that I could think of to fill the board. I started from the four corners each, and also tried starting at random blocks. However after some attempts I realised that it was not possible to solve this problem.


3. Which resources did you use to solve the problem?

This problem was discussed in the "Issues and Methods in Cognitive Science" and hence I was aware that this problem does not have a solution. So I did have to really use any search engine or any other source of information.


4. Which process did you use? Which practice did you use?


Note: I am combining these two questions since I think I can address them better this way

I am not quite aware of what practices this question refers to, so I guess I would say I followed a "mathematical" approach towards this problem. Then to verify the solution of course I used the "trial and error" method. So that I think would classify as "practice" as per this problem.


5. Could computers be used to solve this problem

There are two ways in which computers could be used to solve this problem. One is what is the "Artificial Intelligence" approach. In this approach a program to simulate the game can be implemented. This program can search through the search space for all possible ways to fill the board and arrive to the conclusion that the problem is not solvable. However such a program would be too complex and challenging to implement.

The other approach is the "Human Computer Interaction" approach. In this approach a simulation (with or without actual artifacts i.e like the EDC or just a simulation) could be implemented. This simulation can then assist the problem solver by replacing the "paper and pencil" in his trial and error method. This would then give him "thinks to think with" and also be a lot less messier than using paper and pencil.


6. What have you learnt being able to solve the problem?

I think I discovered the solution to this problem in what we would refer to in class as "conventional" learning style (considering that I learnt in some other class that this problem does not have a solution). However I think that in solving a problem like this collaborating with other people would definitely help. This is so because the solution space is so large that if more people start searching simultaneusly an exhaustive search is possible and also faster.