The barometer story is a good example of functional fixedness. As psychologist Karl Duncker explains, the concept refers to a “mental block against using an object in a new way that is required to solve a problem.” Just as we treat problems and questions as fixed, we do the same with tools. Once we learn that a barometer measures pressure, we blind ourselves to other uses for it. Like the chess players whose eyes kept darting to the familiar solution on the chess board, our minds fixate on the function we know.
