Journal article
Sudden insight is associated with shutting out visual inputs
Psychonomic bulletin & review, v 22(6), pp 1814-1819
Dec 2015
PMID: 26268431
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Creative ideas seem often to appear when we close our eyes, stare at a blank wall, or gaze out of a window--all signs of shutting out distractions and turning attention inward. Prior research has demonstrated that attention-related brain areas are differently active when people solve problems with sudden insight (the Aha! phenomenon), relative to deliberate, analytic solving. We directly investigated the relationship between attention deployment and problem solving by recording eye movements and blinks, which are overt indicators of attention, as people solved short, visually presented problems. In the preparation period, before problems eventually solved by insight, participants blinked more frequently and longer, and made fewer fixations, than before problems eventually solved by analysis. Immediately prior to solutions, participants blinked longer and looked away from the problem more often when solving by insight than when solving analytically. These phenomena extend prior research with a direct demonstration of dynamic differences in attention as people solve problems with sudden insight versus analytically.
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Details
- Title
- Sudden insight is associated with shutting out visual inputs
- Creators
- Carola Salvi - University of Milano-BicoccaEmanuela Bricolo - University of Milano-BicoccaSteven L Franconeri - Northwestern UniversityJohn Kounios - Drexel UniversityMark Beeman - Northwestern University
- Publication Details
- Psychonomic bulletin & review, v 22(6), pp 1814-1819
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences (Psychology)
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000364913400039
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-84947029842
- Other Identifier
- 991019168726204721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Psychology, Experimental
- Psychology, Mathematical