First insights into infants' and children's aha-experiences: A parent report study

Children’s Development of Understanding Aha-experiences in Problem Solving

“…How early children understand aha-experiences awaits further research. Since there are indications that children have aha-experiences from infancy (Haugen et al, 2024), we question whether infants can recognize aha-experiences in the same way they can, according to classical theories, recognize innate basic emotions such as happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, anger, and disgust (See Ekman, 1994;Izard, 1994).…”

“…However, such moments may have implications for learning because they may enhance motivation (Liljedahl, 2005;Skaar & Reber, 2021) and may facilitate better understanding and memory of the learned material (Barot et al, 2024;Danek & Wiley, 2020); thus it is essential to examine aha-experiences in children. Although there are indications that children have aha-experiences throughout childhood, there is limited knowledge of how they understand such moments (Haugen et al, 2024). Previous research on cognition and emotion understanding suggests that children as young as 1 to 2 years old understand basic emotions such as happiness and sadness (Bornstein & Arterberry, 2003;Ekman, 1994;Izard, 1994;Walker-Andrews & Lennon, 1991) and before the age of 4 they can assess their own knowledge state (Marazita & Merriman, 2004;Shatz et al, 1983).…”

“…Although previous research from a scenario-based study shows that 5-year-olds do not base their answers on their own expectations of the outcome (Asaba et al, 2019), we cannot rule out this possibility. Third, children's aha-experiences from infancy to 8 years shifts from being related to action and practical problems to more cognitive problems (Haugen et al, 2024). Hence, their understanding of aha-experiences possibly reflects this shift from external sources (action)…”

The relationship between aha-experiences and interest, and the role of metacognitive feelings

“…The insight is often accompanied by metacognitive feelings of positive affect and a sense of certainty and fluency (Hill & Kemp, 2018;Skaar & Reber, 2021;Topolinski & Reber, 2010). There are indications that aha-experiences are relatively common in mathematics and learning situations in general (Barot et al, 2024;Haugen et al, 2024;Marchant et al, 2023;Skaar & Reber, 2021), and there is evidence that aha-experiences may enhance interest and motivation (Liljedahl, 2005(Liljedahl, , 2013Skaar & Reber, 2023). To our knowledge, the present study is the first longitudinal study to investigate whether and how aha-experiences and the accompanying metacognitive feelings are involved in developing interest in mathematics within a real-world middle school environment.…”