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Chapter 12 - Why My “Aha!” Is Your “Hmm …”

Individual Differences in the Phenomenology and Likelihood of Insight Experiences

from V - Cognitive Neuroscience of Insight

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2024

By
Christine Chesebrough ,
Yongtaek Oh  and
John Kounios
Edited by
Carola Salvi ,
Jennifer Wiley  and
Steven M. Smith
Carola Salvi
Affiliation:
John Cabot University, Rome
Jennifer Wiley
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Chicago
Steven M. Smith
Affiliation:
Texas A & M University
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Summary

Although insight experiences are recognized to be cognitively, physiologically, and neurologically distinct from other forms of reasoning and problem solving, it also appears that the experience of insight is not the same for all types of individuals or in all circumstances. Researchers in our lab and others have begun to examine the individual differences associated with the insight experience: what makes certain individuals more likely to report solving problems insightfully, and how might the subjective experience of insight differ among people according to their underlying psychological and neurobiological characteristics? Research demonstrates that the tendency to experience insight during problem-solving varies among individuals as a function of transient differences in one’s psychological state as well as stable, trait-like differences in neurocognitive dynamics. We argue that an individual differences approach can further disambiguate the components of insight on the behavioral and neural levels and help us understand when, and for whom, such experiences are most likely to occur, and how they may affect us depending on our individual motivations, goals, and underlying neurobiology.

Keywords

Insightaha!problem solvingcreativityindividual differencesneural correlates of insight
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Chapter
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The Emergence of Insight , pp. 251 - 279
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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