Commentary: Moment of (Perceived) Truth: Exploring Accuracy of Aha! Experiences

Webb, Margaret E.; Laukkonen, Ruben; Cropper, Simon J.; Little, Daniel R.

doi:10.1002/jocb.433

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…That is, 'Aha' moments operate as a heuristic -a mental shortcut for deciding which ideas to trust. Central to this view is the idea that feelings of insight are driven by past knowledge, and therefore if past knowledge is incorrect, then so too will be the insight (Laukkonen et al, 2020;Webb et al, 2019). In the above experiments, we manipulated past knowledge using the DRM paradigm in order elicit false feelings of insight.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eliciting false insights with semantic priming

et al. 2022

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The insight experience (or ‘Aha moment’) generally evokes strong feelings of certainty and confidence. An ‘Aha’ experience for a false idea could underlie many false beliefs and delusions. However, for as long as insight experiences have been studied, false insights have remained difficult to elicit experimentally. That difficulty, in turn, highlights the fact that we know little about what causes people to experience a false insight. Across two experiments (total N = 300), we developed and tested a new paradigm to elicit false insights. In Experiment 1 we used a combination of semantic priming and visual similarity to elicit feelings of insight for incorrect solutions to anagrams. These false insights were relatively common but were experienced as weaker than correct ones. In Experiment 2 we replicated the findings of Experiment 1 and found that semantic priming and visual similarity interacted to produce false insights. These studies highlight the importance of misleading semantic processing and the feasibility of the solution in the generation of false insights.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eliciting false insights with semantic priming

et al. 2022

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“…Retrospective self-reports are also problematic for experiments interested in comparing Aha moments to other behavioural or metacognitive outcomes. Several recent studies have found that when Aha moments occur, the solution is likely to be correct (Danek et al, 2014bDanek & Wiley, 2017;Hedne et al, 2016;Salvi, Bricolo, et al, 2016;Threadgold et al, 2018;Webb et al, 2016Webb et al, , 2019. However, the positive association between verbally reported Aha moments and accuracy could be influenced by the relationship between confidence and accuracy, or some other metacognitive reflection prior to reporting (although see below discussion and Danek & Salvi, 2020).…”

Section: Self-report: the Phenomenological Dimension Of Insightmentioning

confidence: 98%

Getting a grip on insight: real-time and embodied Aha experiences predict correct solutions

Laukkonen

Ingledew

Grimmer

et al. 2021

Cognition and Emotion

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Insight experiences are sudden, persuasive, and can accompany valuable new ideas in science and art. In this preregistered experiment, we aim to validate a novel visceral and continuous measure of insight problem solving and to test whether real-time and embodied feelings of insight can predict correct solutions. We report several findings. Consistent with recent work, we find a strong positive relationship between Aha moments and accuracy for problems that demand implicit processing. We also found that the intensity of the insight experience further predicted the accuracy of solutions and participants naturally embodied the intensity of their insight experiences by squeezing the dynamometer more tightly. Intriguingly, this unintentional embodiment further predicted the accuracy of solutions. We suggest that the dynamometer complements previous measures by (1) simultaneously capturing both process and feeling in real-time, (2) highlights the value of measuring Aha moments on a continuum of intensity, and (3) firmly establishes that the impulsive feeling of Aha can carry information about the veracity of an idea. We discuss the findings in light of a recent theoretical account of how feelings of insight may act as a heuristic to select ideas from the stream of consciousness.

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“…This result corresponds to those of previous studies that show that an Aha! experience is associated with solution accuracy (Salvi et al, 2016;Webb et al, 2021). Furthermore, Aha!-experience ratings in response to correct solutions were higher than in response to false solutions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

A sudden increase in perceptual fluency enhances the probability of an Aha!-like comprehension in remote associate test problems

Ammalainen¹,

Moroshkina²

2023

Preprint

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People sometimes experience Aha! moments when solving problems, but the nature of these experiences and their sources have not been extensively explored. According to the processing fluency framework, an Aha! experience may be considered a result of a sudden increase in processing fluency. Based on this, we suggested that Aha judgements could be affected by the misattribution of processing fluency. In two experiments, we tested this hypothesis using remote associate problems with mirrored letters. The first experiment demonstrated that problems with mirrored letters are less likely to be judged as solvable compared to normally written problems, suggesting that mirroring letters reduces processing fluency. In the second experiment, participants judged Aha! experiences in response to solutions' presentation. Our findings indicate that participants were more likely to report an Aha!-like comprehension when the mirrored writing changed to normal at the moment of the correct solution presentation. That is, a sudden increase in perceptual fluency led to higher chances of experiencing Aha! moments. These results indicate that Aha! experiences can be affected by fluency misattribution.

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Commentary: Moment of (Perceived) Truth: Exploring Accuracy of Aha! Experiences

Cited by 15 publications

References 36 publications

Eliciting false insights with semantic priming

Eliciting false insights with semantic priming

Getting a grip on insight: real-time and embodied Aha experiences predict correct solutions

A sudden increase in perceptual fluency enhances the probability of an Aha!-like comprehension in remote associate test problems

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