Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Insight Problem Solving and Unconscious Analytic Thought. New Lines of Research

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology (MBR 2018)

Part of the book series: Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics ((SAPERE,volume 49))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

Several studies have been interested in explaining which processes underlie the solution of insight problems. Our contribution analyses and compares the main theories on this topic, focusing on two contrasting perspectives: the business-as-usual view (conscious and analytical processes) and the special process view (unconscious automatic associations). Both of these approaches have critical aspects that reveal the complexity of the issue on hand. In our view, the insight problem solution derives from an unconscious analytic thought, where the unconscious process is not merely associative (by chance), but is achieved by a covert thinking process, which includes a relevant, analytic, goal-oriented search.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The main theoretical views are the executive attention view (e.g. Engle 2002), the binding hypothesis (e.g., Oberauer 2009) and the primary and secondary memory view (Unsworth and Engle 2007).

References

  • Andrade J (2001) The contribution of working memory to conscious experience. In: Andrade J (ed) Working memory in perspective. Psychology Press, Hove, pp 60–78

    Google Scholar 

  • Ash IK, Wiley J (2006) The nature of restructuring in insight: an individual-differences approach. Psychon Bull Rev 13:66–73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baddeley AD (2003) Working memory: looking back and looking forward. Nat Rev Neurosci 4(10):829–839

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baddeley AD (2000) The episodic buffer: a new component of working memory? Trends Cogn Sci 4(11):417–423

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baddeley AD (1992) Consciousness and working memory. Conscious Cogn 1:3–6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baddeley AD, Hitch G (1974) Working memory. In: Bower GH (ed) The psychology of learning and motivation: advances in research and theory, vol 8. Academic Press, New York, pp 47–89

    Google Scholar 

  • Bagassi M, Franchella M, Macchi L (2015) High cognitive abilities or interactional intelligence in insight problem solving? Manuscript under review

    Google Scholar 

  • Bartlett F (1958) Thinking: an experimental and social study

    Google Scholar 

  • Bagassi M, Macchi L (2016) The interpretative function and the emergence of unconscious analytic thought. In: Macchi L, Bagassi M, Viale R (eds) Cognitive unconscious and human rationality. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 43–76

    Google Scholar 

  • Baird B, Smallwood J, Mrazek MD, Kam JW, Franklin MS, Schooler JW (2012) Inspired by distraction: mind wandering facilitates creative incubation. Psychol Sci 23(10):1117–1122

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barrett LF, Tugade MM, Engle RW (2004) Individual differences in working memory capacity and dual-process theories of the mind. Psychol Bull 130:553–573

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beilock SL, Decaro MS (2007) From poor performance to success under stress: working memory, strategy selection, and mathematical problem solving under pressure. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 33:983–998

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowden EM, Jung-Beeman M, Fleck J, Kounios J (2005) New approaches to demystifying insight. Trends Cogn Sci 9:322–328

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chein JM, Weisberg RW, Streeter NL, Kwok S (2010) Working memory and insight in the nine-dot problem. Mem Cogn 38:883–892

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chronicle EP, MacGregor JN, Ormerod TC (2004) What makes an insight problem? The roles of heuristics, goal conception, and solution recoding in knowledge-lean problems. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 30:14–27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chuderski A, Jastrzębski J (2017) Working memory facilitates insight instead of hindering it: comment on DeCaro, Van Stockum, and Wieth (2016). J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 43(12):1993

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chuderski A, Jastrzębski J (2018) Much ado about aha!: Insight problem solving is strongly related to working memory capacity and reasoning ability. J Exp Psychol Gen 147(2):257–281

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conway ARA, Kane MJ, Bunting MF, Hambrick DZ, Wilhelm O, Engle RW (2005) Working memory span tasks: a methodological review and user’s guide. Psychon Bull Rev 12:769–786

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeCaro MS, Van Stockum CA Jr, Wieth M (2016) When higher working memory capacity hinders insight. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 42:39–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeCaro MS, Van Stockum CA Jr, Wieth M (2017) The relationship between working memory and insight depends on moderators: reply to Chuderski and Jastrzębski (2017). J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 43:2005–2010

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duncker K (1945) On problem-solving. Psychological monographs, vol 58, no 270. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Engle RW (2002) Working memory capacity as executive attention. Curr Dir Psychol Sci 11:19–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fleck JI (2008) Working memory demands in insight versus analytic problem solving. Eur J Cogn Psychol 20:139–176

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fleck JI, Weisberg RW (2004) The use of verbal protocols as data: an analysis of insight in the candle problem. Mem Cogn 32:990–1006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fleck JI, Weisberg RW (2013) Insight versus analysis: evidence for diverse methods in problem solving. J Cogn Psychol 25(4):436–463

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilhooly KJ (2016) Incubation in creative thinking. In: Macchi L, Bagassi M, Viale R (eds) Cognitive unconscious and human rationality. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 301–314

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilhooly KJ, Murphy P (2005) Differentiating insight from non-insight problems. Think Reason 11:279–302

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilhooly KJ, Fioratou E, Henretty N (2010) Verbalization and problem solving: insight and spatial factors. Br J Psychol 101(1):81–93

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilhooly KJ, Georgiou GJ, Devery U (2013) Incubation and creativity: do something different. Think Reason 19:137–149

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilhooly KJ, Georgiou GJ, Sirota M, Paphiti-Galeano A (2015) Incubation and suppression processes in creative problem solving. Think Reason 21(1):130–146

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs C, Silvanto J (2015) How is working memory content consciously experienced? The ‘conscious copy’ model of WM introspection. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 55:510–519

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones G (2003) Testing two cognitive theories of insight. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 29:1017–1027

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jung-Beeman M, Bowden EM, Haberman J, Frymiare JL, Arambel-Liu S, Greenblatt R et al (2004) Neural activity when people solve verbal problems with insight. PLoS Biol 2(4):1–11

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kane MJ, Engle RW (2003) Working-memory capacity and the control of attention: the contributions of goal neglect, response competition, and task set to Stroop interference. J Exp Psychol Gen 132(1):47–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan C (1990) Hatching a theory of incubation: does putting a problem aside really help? If so, why? Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Carnegie Mellon University

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan CA, Simon HA (1990) In search of insight. Cogn Psychol 22:374–419

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knoblich G, Ohlsson S, Haider H, Rhenius D (1999) Constraint relaxation and chunk decomposition in insight problem solving. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 25:1534–1555

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koffka K (1935) Principles of Gestalt Psychology. Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Köhler W (1925) The mentality of apes. Liveright, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Macchi L, Bagassi M (2012) Intuitive and analytical processes in insight problem solving: a psycho-rhetorical approach to the study of reasoning. Mind Soc 11(1):53–67 Special issue: Dual process theories of human thought: The debate

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Macchi L, Bagassi M (2015) When analytic thought is challenged by a misunderstanding. Think Reason 21(1):147–164

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Metcalfe J (1986) Feeling of knowing in memory and problem solving. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 12(2): 288–294

    Google Scholar 

  • Mosconi G (1990) Discorso e pensiero. Il Mulino, Bologna

    Google Scholar 

  • Mosconi G (1997) Pensiero. In: Legrenzi P (ed) Manuale di psicologia generale. Il Mulino, Bologna, pp 393–453

    Google Scholar 

  • Mosconi G (2016) A psycho-rhetorical perspective on thought and human rationality. In: Macchi L, Bagassi M, Viale R (eds) Cognitive unconscious and human rationality. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Newell A, Simon HA (1972) Human problem solving. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs

    Google Scholar 

  • Oberauer K (2009) Design for a working memory. In: Ross BH (ed) The psychology of learning and motivation, vol 51. The psychology of learning and motivation. Elsevier Academic Press, San Diego, pp 45–100

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Ohlsson S (2011) Deep learning: how the mind overrides experience. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Öllinger M, Jones G, Knoblich G (2008) Investigating the effect of mental set on insight problem solving. Exp Psychol 55(4):269–282

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olton RM, Johnson DM (1976) Mechanism of incubation in creative problem solving. Am J Psychol 89(4):617–630

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perkins D (1981) The mind’s best work. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Raichle ME, MacLeod AM, Snyder AZ, Powers WJ, Gusnard DA, Shulman GL (2001) A default mode of brain function. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98(2):676–682

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Redick TS, Broadway JM, Meier ME, Kuriakose PS, Unsworth N, Kane MJ, Engle RW (2012) Measuring working memory capacity with automated complex span tasks. Eur J Psychol Assess 28:164–171

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schooler JW, Ohlsson S, Brooks K (1993) Thoughts beyond words: when language overshadows insight. J Exp Psychol Gen 122(2):166–183

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schooler JW, Smallwood J, Christoff K, Handy TC, Reichle ED, Sayette MA (2011) Meta-awareness, perceptual decoupling and the wandering mind. Trends Cogn Sci 15(7):319–326

    Google Scholar 

  • Segal E (2004) Incubation in insight problem solving. Creativity Res J 16(1):141–148

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seifert MC, Meyer DE, Davidson N, Patalano AL, Yaniv I (1995) Demystification of cognitive insight: opportunistic assimilation and the prepared-mind perspective. In: Sternberg RJ, Davidson JE (eds) The nature of insight. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 65–124

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon HA (1966) Scientific discovery and the psychology of problem solving. In: Colodny R (ed) Mind and cosmos. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, pp 22–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon HA, Newell A (1971) Human problem solving: the state of theory. Am Psychol 21(2):145–159

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sio UN, Ormerod TC (2009) Does incubation enhance problem solving? A meta-analytic review. Psychol Bull 135(1):94–120

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smallwood J, Schooler JW (2006) The restless mind. Psychol Bull 132:946–958

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smallwood J, McSpadden M, Luus B, Schooler JW (2008) Segmenting the stream of consciousness: the psychological correlates of temporal structures in the time series data of a continuous performance task. Brain Cogn 66:50–56

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith SM, Blankenship SE (1989) Incubation effects. Bull Psychon Soc 27(4):311–314

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith SM, Blankenship SE (1991) Incubation and the persistence of fixation in problem solving. Am J Psychol 104(1):61–87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith SM, Fox PT, Miller KL, Glahn DC, Fox PM, Mackay CE, Filippini N, Watkins KE, Toro R, Laird AR, Beckmann CF (2009) Correspondence of the brain’s functional architecture during activation and rest. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106(31):13040–13045

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sternberg RJ, Davidson JE (eds) (1986) Conceptions of giftedness. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Unsworth N, Engle RW (2007) The nature of individual differences in working memory capacity: active maintenance in primary memory and controlled search from secondary memory. Psychol Rev 114:104–132

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wallas G (1926) The art of thought. Jonathan Cape, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Weisberg RW (2006) Creativity: understanding innovation in problem solving, science, invention, and the arts. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Weisberg RW (2015) Toward an integrated theory of insight in problem solving. Think Reason 21(1):5–39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weisberg RW, Alba JW (1981) An examination of the alleged role of “fixation” in the solution of several “insight” problems. J Exp Psychol Gen 110(2):169–192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wertheimer M (1925) Drei Abhandlungen zur Gestalttheorie. Verlag der Philosophischen Akademie, Erlangen

    Google Scholar 

  • Wertheimer M (1945) Productive thinking. Harper, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Wertheimer M (1985) A gestalt perspective on computer simulations of cognitive processes. Comput Hum Behav 1(1):19–33

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiley J, Jarosz A (2012) How working memory capacity affects problem solving. Psychol Learn Motiv 56:185–227

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woodworth RS (1938) Experimental psychology. Holt, New York

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

    Laura Macchi, Veronica Cucchiarini, Laura Caravona & Maria Bagassi

Authors
  1. Laura Macchi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Veronica Cucchiarini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Laura Caravona
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Maria Bagassi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Laura Macchi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of Seville, Seville, Spain

    Ángel Nepomuceno-Fernández

  2. Department of Humanities, Philosophy Section, and Computational Philosophy Laboratory, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

    Lorenzo Magnani

  3. Department of Spanish Language, Linguistics and Theory of Literature, University of Seville, Seville, Spain

    Francisco J. Salguero-Lamillar

  4. Department of Philosophy, Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of Seville, Seville, Spain

    Cristina Barés-Gómez

  5. Centre for Philosophy of Science of the University of Lisbon, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Matthieu Fontaine

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Macchi, L., Cucchiarini, V., Caravona, L., Bagassi, M. (2019). Insight Problem Solving and Unconscious Analytic Thought. New Lines of Research. In: Nepomuceno-Fernández, Á., Magnani, L., Salguero-Lamillar, F., Barés-Gómez, C., Fontaine, M. (eds) Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology. MBR 2018. Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics, vol 49. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32722-4_8

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation