Cognitive Abilities Involved in Insight Problem Solving: An Individual Differences Model

This study investigated individual differences in cognitive abilities that contribute to solving insight problems. A model is proposed describing three types of cognitive ability that contribute independently to insight: convergent thinking, divergent thinking, and breaking frame. The model was tested in a large sample (N = 108) by regressing insight problem solving performance on measures of these three abilities. This analysis demonstrated that all three abilities predicted insight independently. Convergent thinking was further broken down into verbal intelligence and working memory, which also predicted insight independently of each other and of divergent thinking and breaking frame. Finally, when pitted against noninsight problem solving as a predictor in regression, only insight problem solving was uniquely associated with divergent thinking and breaking frame. The model is suggested as a potentially useful taxonomy for the study of ill-defined problems and cognitive abilities.

[1]  Robert W. Weisberg,et al.  An examination of the alleged role of "fixation" in the solution of several "insight" problems. , 1981 .

[2]  Jordan B. Peterson,et al.  Sources of openness/intellect: cognitive and neuropsychological correlates of the fifth factor of personality. , 2005, Journal of personality.

[3]  J. A. Crowther The Evolution of Physics: , 1938, Nature.

[4]  Jennifer Wiley,et al.  The nature of restructuring in insight: An individual-differences approach , 2006, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[5]  J. Peterson,et al.  Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief , 1999 .

[6]  Timothy A. Post,et al.  On the solving of ill-structured problems. , 1988 .

[7]  S. Ohlsson,et al.  Constraint relaxation and chunk decomposition in insight problem solving , 1999 .

[8]  Jordan B. Peterson,et al.  Morning people are stable people: Circadian rhythm and the higher-order factors of the Big Five , 2007 .

[9]  Newell,et al.  A neural basis for general intelligence , 2000, American journal of ophthalmology.

[10]  C. Carver,et al.  On the Self-Regulation of Behavior , 1998 .

[11]  yvind Martinsen,et al.  Insight problems revisited: The influence of cognitive styles and experience on creative problem solving , 1993 .

[12]  Allen Newell,et al.  Human Problem Solving. , 1973 .

[13]  J. W. Getzels Problem‐Finding and the Inventiveness of Solutions , 1975 .

[14]  Øyvind Lund Martinsen,et al.  Cognitive Styles and Experience in Solving Insight Problems: Replication and Extension , 1995 .

[15]  Teresa M. Amabile,et al.  ? + ? = creativity. , 2018, Public health nursing.

[16]  J. Schooler,et al.  The ineffability of insight. , 1995 .

[17]  W. M. Malisoff What Is Insight? , 1940, Philosophy of Science.

[18]  R. Lockhart,et al.  Conceptual transfer in simple insight problems. , 1988, Memory & cognition.

[19]  Pamela I. Ansburg Individual differences in problem solving via insight , 2000 .

[20]  M. Runco,et al.  Cognition and creativity , 1995 .

[21]  R. Sternberg,et al.  Recognizing, defining, and representing problems. , 2003 .

[22]  R. A. Brooks,et al.  Intelligence without Representation , 1991, Artif. Intell..

[23]  M. Chi,et al.  The Nature of Expertise , 1988 .

[24]  Trina C. Kershaw,et al.  Multiple causes of difficulty in insight: the case of the nine-dot problem. , 2004, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[25]  J. Metcalfe Premonitions of insight predict impending error. , 1986 .

[26]  S. Faraone,et al.  WAIS—R validation of the Wonderlic Personnel Test as a brief intelligence measure in a psychiatric sample. , 1990 .

[27]  Edward M. Bowden,et al.  Getting the Right Idea: Semantic Activation in the Right Hemisphere May Help Solve Insight Problems , 1998 .

[28]  Mark A. Runco,et al.  The instructional enhancement of the flexibility and originality scores of divergent thinking tests , 1991 .

[29]  Kevin M. Brooks,et al.  Thoughts beyond words : When language overshadows insight , 1993 .

[30]  Alan C. Evans,et al.  Dissociation of human mid-dorsolateral from posterior dorsolateral frontal cortex in memory processing. , 1993, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[31]  J. Bruner,et al.  On the perception of incongruity; a paradigm. , 1949, Journal of personality.

[32]  David J. Therriault,et al.  A latent variable analysis of working memory capacity, short-term memory capacity, processing speed, and general fluid intelligence , 2002 .

[33]  C. Carver,et al.  On the Self-Regulation of Behavior , 1998 .

[34]  J. Metcalfe,et al.  Intuition in insight and noninsight problem solving , 1987, Memory & cognition.

[35]  C. Chabris,et al.  Neural mechanisms of general fluid intelligence , 2003, Nature Neuroscience.

[36]  Craig A. Kaplan,et al.  In search of insight , 1990, Cognitive Psychology.

[37]  Mary Lamon,et al.  Conceptual transfer insimple insight problems , 1988, Memory & cognition.

[38]  J. H. Steiger Tests for comparing elements of a correlation matrix. , 1980 .

[39]  Roger L. Dominowski,et al.  Learning to solve insight problems , 1981 .

[40]  Edward M. Bowden,et al.  Aha! Insight experience correlates with solution activation in the right hemisphere , 2003, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[41]  C. Dodrill,et al.  Long-term reliability of the Wonderlic Personnel Test. , 1983 .

[42]  James N MacGregor,et al.  What makes an insight problem? The roles of heuristics, goal conception, and solution recoding in knowledge-lean problems. , 2004, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[43]  Jordan B. Peterson,et al.  Complexity Management Theory: Motivation for Ideological Rigidity and Social Conflict , 2002, Cortex.

[44]  S. Ceci,et al.  Clue-Efficiency and Insight: Unveiling the Mystery of Inductive Leaps. , 1996 .

[45]  Todd Lubart,et al.  An investment approach to creativity: theory and data , 1995 .

[46]  M. Scheerer,et al.  Problem Solving , 1967, Nature.

[47]  Christine Chiarello,et al.  Right hemisphere language comprehension : perspectives from cognitive neuroscience , 1998 .

[48]  Marcin Peski Categorization , 2006, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology.

[49]  Janet E. Davidson,et al.  The Psychology of Problem Solving: Insights about Insightful Problem Solving , 2003 .

[50]  B. Milner,et al.  Deficits on subject-ordered tasks after frontal- and temporal-lobe lesions in man , 1982, Neuropsychologia.

[51]  H. A. Witkin A Manual for the embedded figures tests , 1971 .

[52]  Jordan B. Peterson,et al.  Self-deception and impaired categorization of anomaly , 2002 .

[53]  C. Dodrill An economical method for the evaluation of general intelligence in adults. , 1981, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[54]  N. Maier Reasoning in humans. II. The solution of a problem and its appearance in consciousness. , 1931 .