You are given a candle, a box of matches, a few thumbtacks, and a very short piece of string with the instruction to mount the candle on a wall. It never occurs to you that you could empty the matchbox and tack it to the wall as a platform for the candle because of .

Functional fixedness      

Explanation:

You are given a candle, a box of matches, a few thumbtacks, and a very short piece of string with the instruction to mount the candle on a wall. It never occurs to you that you could empty the matchbox and tack it to the wall as a platform for the candle because of functional fixedness. Functional  fixedness is a cognitive bias that makes individuals not to see the alternative ways to use an item apart for the traditional purpose for which it was made.

chronological thinking is an indispensable tool to structure a historical narrative and to give meaning to a sequence of events. the final section presents the results of a survey to test the chronological thinking of lower secondary school students carried out by the educational research institute.