Millie is stumped by a problem in her pre-calculus text. She furtively glances at the answer provided in the back of the text to get an idea of how the solution should look before she returns to the problem. Millie's strategy most closely resembles the problem-solving heuristic of:.a. working backward.
b. trial and error.
c. forming subgoals.
d. insight.

a. working backward.  

Explanation:

Working backwards: In psychology, the term "working backwards" is considered as one of the different types of heuristics and is described as a problem-solving method whereby a person imagines or thinks that he or she has solved a specific problem which he or she was trying to solve for quite a while.

Through the process of analyzing or imagining that the person has already solved a specific problem, he or she can then "work backwards" in his or her mind and therefore becomes capable of visualizing a particular solution to the given problem.

In the question above, Millie's strategy most closely resembles the problem-solving heuristic of "working backwards".

the earth’s crust is broken into separate pieces called tectonic plates (fig. 7.14). recall that the crust is the solid, rocky, outer shell of the planet. it is composed of two distinctly different types of material: the less-dense continental crust and the more-dense oceanic crust. both types of crust rest atop solid, upper mantle material. the upper mantle, in turn, floats on a denser layer of lower mantle that is much like thick molten tar.

each tectonic plate is free-floating and can move independently. earthquakes and volcanoes are the direct result of the movement of tectonic plates at fault lines. the term fault is used to describe the boundary between tectonic plates. most of the earthquakes and volcanoes around the pacific ocean basin—a pattern known as the “ring of fire”—are due to the movement of tectonic plates in this region. other observable results of short-term plate movement include the gradual widening of the great rift lakes in eastern africa and the rising of the himalayan mountain range. the motion of plates can be described in four general patterns:

collision: when two continental plates are shoved together

subduction: when one plate plunges beneath another (fig. 7.15)

spreading: when two plates are pushed apart (fig. 7.15)

transform faulting: when two plates slide past each other (fig. 7.15)