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Insight Is Not in the Problem: Investigating Insight in Problem Solving across Task Types
The feeling of insight in problem solving is typically associated with the sudden realization of a solution that appears obviously correct (Kounios et al., 2006). Salvi et al. (2016) found that a solution accompanied with sudden insight is more likely to be correct than a problem solved through cons...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5035735/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27725805 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01424 |
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author | Webb, Margaret E. Little, Daniel R. Cropper, Simon J. |
author_facet | Webb, Margaret E. Little, Daniel R. Cropper, Simon J. |
author_sort | Webb, Margaret E. |
collection | PubMed |
description | The feeling of insight in problem solving is typically associated with the sudden realization of a solution that appears obviously correct (Kounios et al., 2006). Salvi et al. (2016) found that a solution accompanied with sudden insight is more likely to be correct than a problem solved through conscious and incremental steps. However, Metcalfe (1986) indicated that participants would often present an inelegant but plausible (wrong) answer as correct with a high feeling of warmth (a subjective measure of closeness to solution). This discrepancy may be due to the use of different tasks or due to different methods in the measurement of insight (i.e., using a binary vs. continuous scale). In three experiments, we investigated both findings, using many different problem tasks (e.g., Compound Remote Associates, so-called classic insight problems, and non-insight problems). Participants rated insight-related affect (feelings of Aha-experience, confidence, surprise, impasse, and pleasure) on continuous scales. As expected we found that, for problems designed to elicit insight, correct solutions elicited higher proportions of reported insight in the solution compared to non-insight solutions; further, correct solutions elicited stronger feelings of insight compared to incorrect solutions. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5035735 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-50357352016-10-10 Insight Is Not in the Problem: Investigating Insight in Problem Solving across Task Types Webb, Margaret E. Little, Daniel R. Cropper, Simon J. Front Psychol Psychology The feeling of insight in problem solving is typically associated with the sudden realization of a solution that appears obviously correct (Kounios et al., 2006). Salvi et al. (2016) found that a solution accompanied with sudden insight is more likely to be correct than a problem solved through conscious and incremental steps. However, Metcalfe (1986) indicated that participants would often present an inelegant but plausible (wrong) answer as correct with a high feeling of warmth (a subjective measure of closeness to solution). This discrepancy may be due to the use of different tasks or due to different methods in the measurement of insight (i.e., using a binary vs. continuous scale). In three experiments, we investigated both findings, using many different problem tasks (e.g., Compound Remote Associates, so-called classic insight problems, and non-insight problems). Participants rated insight-related affect (feelings of Aha-experience, confidence, surprise, impasse, and pleasure) on continuous scales. As expected we found that, for problems designed to elicit insight, correct solutions elicited higher proportions of reported insight in the solution compared to non-insight solutions; further, correct solutions elicited stronger feelings of insight compared to incorrect solutions. Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-09-26 /pmc/articles/PMC5035735/ /pubmed/27725805 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01424 Text en Copyright © 2016 Webb, Little and Cropper. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychology Webb, Margaret E. Little, Daniel R. Cropper, Simon J. Insight Is Not in the Problem: Investigating Insight in Problem Solving across Task Types |
title | Insight Is Not in the Problem: Investigating Insight in Problem Solving across Task Types |
title_full | Insight Is Not in the Problem: Investigating Insight in Problem Solving across Task Types |
title_fullStr | Insight Is Not in the Problem: Investigating Insight in Problem Solving across Task Types |
title_full_unstemmed | Insight Is Not in the Problem: Investigating Insight in Problem Solving across Task Types |
title_short | Insight Is Not in the Problem: Investigating Insight in Problem Solving across Task Types |
title_sort | insight is not in the problem: investigating insight in problem solving across task types |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5035735/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27725805 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01424 |
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