When a construction engineer contemplates the properties of the concrete he is using to construct a building, does his thinking become concrete? -Ia.A. PonomarevThe question of what comprises the individual problem-solving process is a matter of some dispute. The assortment of "component parts" described in the literature is so varied and ambiguous that we come away with the impression that they have nothing whatsoever to do with one another and are completely incongruous. Could it really be that individual thinking is so multivarious, or are we facing a terminological muddle and the confusion of many objects of study and of what defines (and limits) the diversity of problem-solving processes. The subject of our analysis, therefore, will be the functional organization of the process of problem solving.