Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T21:22:30.476Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Unpacking Impasse-Related Experience during Insight

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2019

Wangbing Shen Open the ORCID record for Wangbing Shen [Opens in a new window] ,
Yuan Yuan ,
Fang Lu ,
Chang Liu ,
Jing Luo  and
Zhijin Zhou
Wangbing Shen*
Affiliation:
Hohai University (China)
Yuan Yuan*
Affiliation:
Nanjing Normal University of Special Education (China)
Fang Lu
Affiliation:
Yancheng Teachers University (China)
Chang Liu*
Affiliation:
Nanjing Normal University (China)
Jing Luo
Affiliation:
Capital Normal University (China)
Zhijin Zhou*
Affiliation:
Huazhong Normal University (China)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Wangbing Shen. Hohai University, 210098 Nanjing. E-mail: [email protected]. Yuan Yuan, Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Special Children’s Impairment and Intervention & School of Education Science, Nanjing Normal University of Special Education, 210038 Nanjing. Email: [email protected]. Chang Liu, Nanjing Normal University, 210097 Nanjing. Email: [email protected]. Jing Luo, Capital Normal University, 100048 Beijing. Email: [email protected]. Or Zhijin Zhou, Central China Normal University, 430079 Wuhan, Email: [email protected]
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Wangbing Shen. Hohai University, 210098 Nanjing. E-mail: [email protected]. Yuan Yuan, Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Special Children’s Impairment and Intervention & School of Education Science, Nanjing Normal University of Special Education, 210038 Nanjing. Email: [email protected]. Chang Liu, Nanjing Normal University, 210097 Nanjing. Email: [email protected]. Jing Luo, Capital Normal University, 100048 Beijing. Email: [email protected]. Or Zhijin Zhou, Central China Normal University, 430079 Wuhan, Email: [email protected]
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Wangbing Shen. Hohai University, 210098 Nanjing. E-mail: [email protected]. Yuan Yuan, Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Special Children’s Impairment and Intervention & School of Education Science, Nanjing Normal University of Special Education, 210038 Nanjing. Email: [email protected]. Chang Liu, Nanjing Normal University, 210097 Nanjing. Email: [email protected]. Jing Luo, Capital Normal University, 100048 Beijing. Email: [email protected]. Or Zhijin Zhou, Central China Normal University, 430079 Wuhan, Email: [email protected]
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Wangbing Shen. Hohai University, 210098 Nanjing. E-mail: [email protected]. Yuan Yuan, Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Special Children’s Impairment and Intervention & School of Education Science, Nanjing Normal University of Special Education, 210038 Nanjing. Email: [email protected]. Chang Liu, Nanjing Normal University, 210097 Nanjing. Email: [email protected]. Jing Luo, Capital Normal University, 100048 Beijing. Email: [email protected]. Or Zhijin Zhou, Central China Normal University, 430079 Wuhan, Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Mental impasse has long been recognized as a hallmark of creative insight, but its precise role has been unexplored. The aim of the present work, consisting of two studies, was to experimentally probe mental impasse perspective from insight experience, namely impasse-related experience during insight. In Study 1, participants were requested to complete a compound remote association task and a forced-choice subjective experience depiction task that could provide data on impasse-related experience. The results showed that reports of negative experience, such as feelings of loss (t = –5.51, p < .001, Cohen d = 1.07) and personal experience (mirrored by ‘other’ response; t = –2.62, p < .05, Cohen d = 0.48), were more common in the impasse condition than in the no-impasse condition; correspondingly positive affect and positive cognitive experiences such as happiness (t = 4.20, p < .001, Cohen d = 0.77), ease (t = 5.90, p < .001, Cohen d = 1.20), certainty (t = 7.46, p < .001, Cohen d = 1.36) and calmness (t = 4.42, p < .001, Cohen d = 0.81) were experienced more frequently in the no-impasse condition. These findings were replicated in Study 2, in which participants were invited to solve a set of classic insight problems and to freely report any feelings of being at an impasse. Across two studies, this work suggests that impasse-related experience during insight problem solving is multi-faceted and consists of negative affective and cognitive components. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Keywords

insight experiencemental impassenegative affectremote association
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 22 , 2019 , E39
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20181029), National Natural Science Foundation of China (31500870, 31471000), Philosophy and Social Science fund of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (2017SJB0649), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2017M621603), the Foundation of DaYu Plan of Hohai University, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2017B15314) and the Natural Science Foundation of the Higher Education Institutions of Jiangsu Province (17KJB190002). We thank Meifeng Hua and Meijiao Wang for their help in collecting the data of Study 2.

How to cite this article:

Shen, W., Yuan, Y., Lu, F., Liu, C., Luo, J., & Zhou, Z. (2019). Unpacking impasse-related experience during insight. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 22. e39. Doi:10.1017/sjp.2019.40

References

Bailey, B. P., & Konstan, J. A. (2006). On the need for attention-aware systems: Measuring effects of interruption on task performance, error rate, and affective state. Computers in Human Behavior, 22(4), 685–708. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2005.12.009CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beeftink, F., van Eerde, W., & Rutte, C. G. (2008). The effect of interruptions and breaks on insight and impasses: Do you need a break right now? Creativity Research Journal, 20(4), 358–364. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400410802391314CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowden, E. M., & Jung-Beeman, M. (2003). Normative data for 144 compound remote associate problems. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 35(4), 634–639. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03195543CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chi, R. P., & Snyder, A. W. (2011). Facilitate insight by non-invasive brain stimulation. PLOS ONE, 6(2), e16655. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0016655CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cosmelli, D., & Preiss, D. D. (2014). On the temporality of creative insight: A psychological and phenomenological perspective. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, article 1184. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01184CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cronin, M. A. (2004). A model of knowledge activation and insight in problem solving. Complexity, 9(5), 17–24. https://doi.org/10.1002/cplx.20031CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Danek, A. H., Fraps, T., von Müller, A., Grothe, B., & Öllinger, M. (2014). It’s a kind of magic—what self-reports can reveal about the phenomenology of insight problem solving. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, article 1408. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01408CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fleck, J. I., & Weisberg, R. W. (2004). The use of verbal protocols as data: An analysis of insight in the candle problem. Memory & Cognition, 32(6), 990–1006. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196876CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fleck, J. I., & Weisberg, R. W. (2013). Insight versus analysis: Evidence for diverse methods in problem solving. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25(4), 436–463. https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2013.779248CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gick, M. L., & Lockhart, R. S. (1995). Cognitive and affective components of insight. In Sternberg, R. J. & Davidson, J. E. (Eds.), The nature of insight (pp. 197–228). Cambridge, UK: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Gruber, H. E. (1995). Insight and affect in the history of science. In Sternberg, R. J. & Davidson, J. E. (Eds.), The nature of insight (pp. 397–432). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hill, G., & Kemp, S. M. (2018). Uh‐oh! What have we missed? A qualitative investigation into everyday insight experience. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 52(3), 201–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, G. (2003). Testing two cognitive theories of insight. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 29(5), 1017–1027. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.29.5.1017Google ScholarPubMed
Jung-Beeman, M., Bowden, E. M., Haberman, J., Frymiare, J. L., Arambel-Liu, S., Greenblatt, R., … Kounios, J. (2004). Neural activity when people solve verbal problems with insight. PLOS Biology, 2(4), e97. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0020097CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaplan, C. A., & Simon, H. A. (1990). In search of insight. Cognitive Psychology, 22(3), 374–419. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(90)90008-RCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knoblich, G., Ohlsson, S., & Raney, G. E. (2001). An eye movement study of insight problem solving. Memory & Cognition, 29(7), 1000–1009. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03195762CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lehrer, J. (2008). The eureka hunt. The New Yorker, 28, 40–45.Google Scholar
Ludmer, R., Dudai, Y., & Rubin, N. (2011). Uncovering camouflage: Amygdala activation predicts long-term memory of induced perceptual insight. Neuron, 69(5), 1002–1014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2011.02.013CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Luo, J., & Knoblich, G. (2007). Studying insight problem solving with neuroscientific methods. Methods, 42(1), 77–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymeth.2006.12.005CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Luo, J., & Niki, K. (2003). Function of hippocampus in “insight” of problem solving. Hippocampus, 13(3), 316–323. https://doi.org/10.1002/hipo.10069CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Metuki, N., Sela, T., & Lavidor, M. (2012). Enhancing cognitive control components of insight problems solving by anodal tDCS of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Brain Stimulation, 5(2), 110–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2012.03.002CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moss, J., Kotovsky, K., & Cagan, J. (2011). The effect of incidental hints when problems are suspended before, during, or after an impasse. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 37(1), 140–148. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021206Google ScholarPubMed
Ohlsson, S. (1992). Information-processing explanations of insight and related phenomena. Advances in the Psychology of Thinking, 1, 1–44.Google Scholar
Ormerod, T. C., Macgregor, J. N., & Chronicle, E. P. (2002). Dynamics and constraints in insight problem solving. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 28(4), 791–799. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.28.4.791Google ScholarPubMed
Payne, S. J., & Duggan, G. B. (2011). Giving up problem solving. Memory & cognition, 39(5), 902–913. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-010-0068-6CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shen, W. B., Liu, C., Yuan, Y., Zhang, X., & Luo, J. (2013). Temporal dynamics of mental impasses underlying insight-like problem solving. Science China Life Sciences, 56(3), 284–290. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-013-4454-8CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shen, W., Tong, Y., Yuan, Y., Zhan, H., Liu, C., Luo, J., & Cai, H. (2018). Feeling the Insight: Uncovering somatic markers of the “aha” Experience. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 43(1), 13–21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10484-017-9381-1CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shen, W., Yuan, Y., Liu, C., & Luo, J. (2016). In search of the ‘Aha!’ experience: Elucidating the emotionality of insight problem‐solving. British Journal of Psychology, 107(2), 281–298. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12142CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shen, W., Yuan, Y., Liu, C., & Luo, J. (2017). The roles of the temporal lobe in creative insight: An integrated review. Thinking & Reasoning, 23(4), 321–375. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546783.2017.1308885CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shen, W., Yuan, Y., Tang, C., Shi, C., Liu, C., Luo, J., & Zhang, X. (2018). In search of somatic precursors of spontaneous insight. Journal of Psychophysiology, 32(3), 97–105. https://doi.org/10.1027/0269-8803/a000188CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shen, W., Yuan, Y., Yi, B., Liu, C., & Dou, K. (2016). The development and validity of a Chinese version of the Compound Remote Associates Test. American Journal of Psychology, 129(3), 245–258. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.129.3.0245CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shen, W., Yuan, Y., Zhao, Y., Zhang, X., Liu, C., Luo, J., … Fan, L. (2018). Defining insight: A study examining implicit theories of insight experience. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 12(3), 317–327. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000138CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sternberg, R. J., & Davidson, J. E. (1995). The nature of insight. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Topolinski, S., & Reber, R. (2010a). Gaining insight into the “Aha” experience. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19(6), 402–405. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721410388803CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Topolinski, S., & Reber, R. (2010b). Immediate truth–Temporal contiguity between a cognitive problem and its solution determines experienced veracity of the solution. Cognition, 114(1), 117–122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2009.09.009CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weisberg, R. W. (2013). On the “demystification” of insight: A critique of neuroimaging studies of insight. Creativity Research Journal, 25(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2013.752178CrossRefGoogle Scholar