A factor related to the strength of an "Aha!" experience

Abstract: It is natural to assume that the strength of an "Aha!" becomes stronger when an unexpected solution is correct. In this study, this assumption is examined experimentally through a list of possible correct solutions. In the experiment, subjects listed the possible correct solutions before solving the problems, and evaluated the strength of their "Aha!" experience after they solved the problems. It was shown that the strength of the "Aha!" experience was strongest if the correct answer had not been included in the list of possible correct solutions; if included, the strength of the "Aha!" experience corresponded to the answer's position in the list, that is, the later the correct solution listed, the stronger the feeling became. It is suggested that the strength of an "Aha!" experience can be used as an error function in the learning process.     

Creative self‐efficacy as mediator between creative mindsets and creative problem‐solving

An emerging area of research is how one's mindset regarding the fixedness and malleability of creative ability relates to creative performance. Malleable creative mindsets tend to be positively related to creativity while fixed mindsets often show a negative association. Similarly, creative self‐efficacy, or one's beliefs that they have the capacity to be creative, is also related to creative performance and creative mindsets. While previous studies tested the direct relationship between mindsets and creativity, this study tested creative self‐efficacy in this relationship. A total of 152 students from a Midwestern university participated in the study. They were provided with measures of creative self‐efficacy, creative mindsets, and creative problem‐solving. Solutions were assessed in terms of quality and originality. Results indicated that both malleable creative mindsets and creative self‐efficacy were positively related to solution quality and originality while fixed creative mindsets were negatively related. Mediation analysis using Preacher and Hayes' (2004) bootstrapping macro showed that creative self‐efficacy mediated the relationship between malleable mindsets and quality and originality as well as the relationship between fixed mindsets and quality and originality. This research advances the study of creativity by demonstrating that creative self‐efficacy is an important mechanism through which creative mindsets relate to creative performance.     

顿悟体验的心理与神经机制

顿悟体验研究是揭示顿悟本质的重要途径。先前研究从认知角度对顿悟问题解决中的"旧而无效解题思路如何抛弃"与"新而有效解题思路如何形成"过程进行了颇多探讨,但较少探讨顿悟体验本身。顿悟体验研究对理清创造性顿悟中关键过程间的关系及阐明顿悟的科学规律均有重要的意义。基于创造性顿悟的"新旧交替"的动态视角,本项目拟借助多元方法来对言语类和视图类问题解决过程中尝试解题阶段和答案闪现阶段的顿悟体验的心理实质与脑机制进行研究。本项目成果不仅可以丰富和优化顿悟问题研究的方法学体系,而且能从知情转化层面深化对创造性顿悟脑机制的认识。     

Categories of insight and their correlates: An exploration of relationships among classic‐type insight problems,rebus puzzles,remote associates and esoteric analogies

A central question in creativity concerns how insightful ideas emerge. Anecdotal examples of insightful scientific and technical discoveries include Goodyear's discovery of the vulcanization of rubber, and Mendeleev's realization that there may be gaps as he tried to arrange the elements into the Periodic Table. Although most people would regard these discoveries as insightful, cognitive psychologists have had difficulty in agreeing on whether such ideas resulted from insights or from conventional problem solving processes. One area of wide agreement among psychologists is that insight involves a process of restructuring. If this view is correct, then understanding insight and its role in problem solving will depend on a better understanding of restructuring and the characteristics that describe it. This article proposes and tests a preliminary classification of insight problems based on several restructuring characteristics: the need to redefine spatial assumptions, the need to change defined forms, the degree of misdirection involved, the difficulty in visualizing a possible solution, the number of restructuring sequences in the problem, and the requirement for figure‐ground type reversals. A second purpose of the study was to compare performance on classic spatial insight problems with two types of verbal tests that may be related to insight, the Remote Associates Test (RAT), and rebus puzzles. In doing so, we report on the results of a survey of 172 business students at the University of Waikato in New Zealand who completed classic‐type insight, RAT and rebus problems.     

Gesture offers insight into problem‐solving in adults and children

When asked to explain their solutions to a problem, both adults and children gesture as they talk. These gestures at times convey information that is not conveyed in speech and thus reveal thoughts that are distinct from those revealed in speech. In this study, we use the classic Tower of Hanoi puzzle to validate the claim that gesture and speech taken together can reflect the activation of two cognitive strategies within a single response. The Tower of Hanoi is a well‐studied puzzle, known to be most efficiently solved by activating subroutines at theoretically defined choice points. When asked to explain how they solved the Tower of Hanoi puzzle, both adults and children produced significantly more gesture‐speech mismatches—explanations in which speech conveyed one path and gesture another—at these theoretically defined choice points than they produced at non‐choice points. Even when the participants did not solve the problem efficiently, gesture could be used to indicate where the participants were deciding between alternative paths. Gesture can, thus, serve as a useful adjunct to speech when attempting to discover cognitive processes in problem‐solving.     

Positive and Negative Affects Facilitate Insight Problem‐Solving in Different Ways: A Study with Implicit Hints

This study investigates the influence of affective states on the use of implicit hints when solving insight problems. To examine this, two experiments were conducted, both with Duncker's (1945) radiation problem as an insight problem. When primed with a hint, positive affect inhibited the number of incorrect solutions generated in Experiment 1 and increased the number of correct solutions in Experiment 2. In contrast, negative affect enhanced the participants’ performance regardless of the presence of hints across the two experiments. These results indicate that positive and negative affect facilitate insight problem‐solving in different ways. It seems that positive affect implicitly prompts the acceptance of cues and broadens people's search of a problem space, and negative affect encourages people to intensively focus on solving the insight task. The results suggest a resolution of a long‐standing debate on the effectiveness of positive versus negative affect in solving a problem.     

The Aha! Moment: The Cognitive Neuroscience of Insight

ABSTRACT— A sudden comprehension that solves a problem, reinterprets a situation, explains a joke, or resolves an ambiguous percept is called an insight (i.e., the " Aha! moment"). Psychologists have studied insight using behavioral methods for nearly a century. Recently, the tools of cognitive neuroscience have been applied to this phenomenon. A series of studies have used electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the neural correlates of the " Aha! moment" and its antecedents. Although the experience of insight is sudden and can seem disconnected from the immediately preceding thought, these studies show that insight is the culmination of a series of brain states and processes operating at different time scales. Elucidation of these precursors suggests interventional opportunities for the facilitation of insight.     

Development of social problem‐solving strategies and changes in aggressive behavior: A 7‐year follow‐up from childhood to late adolescence

The aim of this study was to predict a stability of aggressive behavior on the basis of social problem‐solving strategies. Subjects were a total of 120 children, but complete follow‐up data were available only in 47 cases. Their aggressive behaviors were peer rated, and problem‐solving strategies were assessed in childhood subjects being 10 years on average, and 7 years later. Association between a development of social strategies and changes in aggressive behavior was studied with personality‐oriented pattern analyses. The main finding was that a development of strategies predicted a stability or changes of aggressive behavior very well. Aggressive strategies, both in childhood and in adolescence, as well as a lack of constructive alternatives characterized permanently aggressive subjects. Turning from nonaggressive to aggressive behavior was also explained by aggressive problem‐solving strategies, while a positive development, i.e., turning from childhood aggressive to adolescent nonaggressive behavior, was possible only if a person had never used aggressive strategies. Agreement between behavior and strategies was higher among girls. The findings supported a claim that intervention of aggressive behavior may be possible by modifying social strategies. Aggr. Behav. 25:269–279, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

An investigation of the correlations between aggression,impulsiveness, social problem‐solving,and alcohol use

Impulsivity has been shown to predict aggression and heavy drinking in males, and poor social problem‐solving has been identified as a potential mediating variable in this relationship. We set out to investigate the inter‐relationships among impulsiveness, social problem‐solving, aggression, and alcohol use in a non‐offender sample of British males (N=70). Of our proposed relationships, only two were significant: higher impulsivity was related to poorer social problem‐solving, and poorer social problem‐solving was related to greater aggression. Combining impulsivity and social problem‐solving indicated that poor social problem‐solving, not impulsivity, was what exerted the influence over aggression in this sample. Impulsivity perhaps presents an obstacle to learning in the early developmental years, and the legacy of poor problem‐solving is what later contributes to aggression. Aggr. Behav. 28:439–445, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Reduced autobiographical memory specificity as a mediating factor between general anxiety symptoms and performance on problem‐solving tasks

This study sought to further explain the association between general anxiety symptoms and impaired problem‐solving by testing whether this occurs, in part, through a reduced ability to retrieve event‐level, specific autobiographical memory (AM). Participants (N = 301; M age = 28.2 SD = 7.7, 55.8% female) completed assessments of the retrieval of specific AM, anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and rumination. They then completed the Means‐End Problem Solving Task, which assessed their ability to produce relevant problem‐solving steps. Participants who were higher in anxiety reported a lesser number of relevant problem‐solving steps, and this association was, in part, related to anxiety being associated with reduced AM specificity (after controlling for depressive symptoms). Rumination did not mediate anxiety and problem‐solving, nor anxiety and AM specificity. These findings provide further evidence that elevated anxiety is associated with reduced ability to retrieve specific AM, and a specific cognitive pathway through which anxiety may affect problem‐solving performance.     

An Examination of the Personality Constructs Underlying Dimensions of Creative Problem‐Solving Style

This study investigated the personality facets that underpin the construct of problem‐solving style, particularly when approaching more creative kinds of problem‐solving. Cattell's Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire and VIEW—An Assessment of Problem Solving Style were administered to 165 students from the Norwegian Business School. We explored relationships through correlational and regression analysis. Personality profiles were derived for each of VIEW's three dimensions and were in generally expected directions. Those with an Explorer preference were more imaginative and idea oriented, open to change, unconventional, freethinking, and flexible than Developers. Those with a Developer preference were more practical and solution oriented, more traditional, rule conscious, conservative, and respecting of traditional ideas. Those with an External preference were more group oriented, affiliative, socially bold, warm, and attentive to others than those with an Internal preference. Those with a more Task‐oriented preference were more impersonal, detached, utilitarian, and tough minded than those with Person‐oriented preference. We outlined implications and suggestions for further research.     

Social problem‐solving,perceived stress,depression and life‐satisfaction in patients suffering from tension type and migraine headaches

This study aimed at investigating social problem solving, perceived stress, depression, and life‐satisfaction in patients with tension type and migraine headaches. Forty‐nine migraine and 42 tension type headache patients (n = 91) consenting to participate were compared to a total of 49 matched healthy control group. Participants filled in a questionnaire consisting self‐report measures of problem solving, perceived stress, depression and life satisfaction. They were also asked about headache duration, frequency, pain severity, psychiatric treatment and sense of control in one's life. T‐tests, chi‐square, analysis of variance, logistic regression analysis and Pearson product moment correlation coefficient procedures were used to analyze the data. Tension type headache patients reported having had more frequent headaches than the migraine patients but migraine patients reported having had more intense pain than the tension type headache patients. Instances of psychiatric treatment were more common among tension type headache patients than the migraine and the control group. Compared to the healthy controls, headache patients displayed a deficiency in problem solving, higher levels of perceived stress and depression. Levels of problem solving skills in headache patients were related inversely to depression, perceived stress and the number of negative life events but problem solving skills of headache patients was related positively to life‐satisfaction. The findings from this study suggested that cognitive behavioral problem solving therapy or training might be a viable option for reducing levels of stress and depression, and to increase life‐satisfaction in patients suffering from primary headache.     

A Self‐Report Measure of Productive Thinking in Solving Insight Problems

There is broad agreement among executives on the importance of innovation and creativity in organizations. The paper aimed to provide information on the effectiveness of a new cognitive style inventory, the Productive‐Reproductive Thinking Inventory (P‐R), in identifying people with creative problem‐solving potential. Participants completed the P‐R Inventory, Kirton's Adaption‐Innovation Inventory (KAI), the Assimilator‐Explorer Inventory, self‐rating of insight problem‐solving, and a battery of insight problem‐solving tasks under controlled conditions. The P‐R scale was a significant predictor of problem‐solving performance and insight self‐ratings and correlated significantly with KAI and AE scores. In addition, the results supported distinguishing two types of reproductive thinking which are differentially associated with insight performance. The distinction was supported by confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation models. Using controlled conditions may limit the generality of the findings and further research should be carried out in applied settings. The P‐R inventory is short and easily administered and may provide HR professionals with a useful screening tool for assessing creative problem‐solving potential. The measure differs from the KAI in several ways that may offer advantages for creativity researchers in that it is non‐proprietary, based on well‐established psychological constructs, and is more particularly applicable to insight problem‐solving.     

‘Pre‐discursive’ racism

This paper makes the case that discourse analytic approaches in social psychology are not adequate to the task of apprehending racism in its bodily, affective and pre‐symbolic dimensions. We are hence faced with a dilemma: if discursive psychology is inadequate when it comes to theorizing ‘pre‐discursive’ forms of racism, then any attempts to develop an anti‐racist strategy from such a basis will presumably exhibit the same limitations. Suggesting a rapprochement of discursive and psychoanalytic modes of analysis, I argue that Kristeva's theory of abjection provides a means of understanding racism as both historically/socially constructed and as existing at powerfully embodied, visceral and subliminal dimensions of subjectivity. Kristeva's theory of abjection provides us with an account of a ‘pre‐discursive’ (that is, a bodily, affective, pre‐symbolic) racism, a form of racism that ‘comes before words’, and that is routed through the logics of the body and its anxieties of distinction, separation and survival. This theory enables us, moreover, to join together the expulsive reactions of a racism of the body to both the personal racism of the ego and the broader discursive racisms of the prevailing social order. Moreover, it directs our attention to the fact that discourses of racism are always locked into a relationship with ‘pre‐discursive’ processes which condition and augment every discursive action, which escape the codifications of discourse and which drive the urgency of its attempts at containment. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transformational Leadership and Creative Problem‐Solving: The Mediating Role of Psychological Safety and Reflexivity

Previous research has pointed to the importance of transformational leadership in facilitating employees' creative outcomes. However, the mechanism by which transformational leadership cultivates employees' creative problem‐solving capacity is not well understood. Drawing on theories of leadership, information processing and creativity, we proposed and tested a model in which psychological safety and reflexivity mediate the effect of transformational leadership and creative problem‐solving capacity. The results of survey data collected at three points in time indicate that transformational leadership facilitates the development of employees' creative problem‐solving capacity by shaping a climate of psychological safety conducive to reflexivity processes. However, the findings also indicate that psychological safety is related both directly and indirectly, through reflexivity, to employees' creative problem‐solving capacity. This study sheds further light on the ways in which transformational leaders help to develop and cultivate employees' capacity for creative problem‐solving.