"Hot or Cold?" Online nearness-to-solution ratings reveal multiple paths to insight

Abstract

The Aha! experience, demarcating the sudden comprehension of a perplexing problem, has fascinated scientists and laypeople alike. This peculiar phenomenon of insight entails a different problem-solving experience than solving a problem using a multistep, analytical approach (i.e., non-insight). Although extant theories agree that a profound reinterpretation of the problem (i.e., restructuring) is crucial for the occurrence of insight, the (un)conscious nature of the processes leading to restructuring remains debated. We addressed insight's (un)conscious nature by exposing the metacognitive trajectories that lead to insight and non-insight. Participants (N = 65) jointly solved word puzzles from the compound remote associates test while continuously indicating their proximity to the solution on a nearness-to-solution rating scale. After solving each puzzle, participants reported whether a solution was found with insight or non-insight. Our results showed that the nearness-to-solution ratings of insight mainly displayed a discontinuous, all-or-none trajectory, whereas, for non-insight, the ratings showed an incremental trajectory. This shows that the main path to insight was dissimilar to non-insight and more reminiscent of an unconscious process. However, insight and non-insight trajectories were occasionally similar, with an incremental pattern preceding it. This implies that insight is sometimes achieved via a more conscious process. Overall, multiple paths seem to lead to insight. Using a data-driven approach, we also mapped participants' self-reported insight/non-insight classifications on the naturally occurring clusters in the data as derived with unsupervised machine learning algorithms. Results revealed strong correspondence between the self-reports and the naturally occurring clusters, supporting the validity of the insight/non-insight self-report measure.

The Aha! experience is associated with a drop in the perceived difficulty of the problem

“…Subjective reports on solution suddenness are often used to prove the special status of cognitive processes leading to insights ( Metcalfe and Wiebe, 1987 ; Stuyck et al, 2023 ), and an Aha! experience is considered a marker of these processes.…”