Insight, problem solving, and creativity

Weisberg, Robert W.

doi:10.4324/9781315268118-10

Cited by 34 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…First‐order problem‐solving unfolds contingently along a spatiotemporal trajectory, shaped by actions and dotted with preliminary observations that cue additional actions, and this recursive process may result in the discovery of a solution (Vallée‐Tourangeau & Vallée‐Tourangeau, 43). It is incremental, and in that respect shares similarities with the gradualism espoused by Weisberg (44; we return to this point below).…”

Section: Working Memory: the Psychometric Approachmentioning

confidence: 61%

“…How first‐order problem‐solving can address the current debate in insight problem solving researcher, pitting special processes and business‐as‐usual accounts, remains to be systematically explored. The process of undergoing and transformation in first‐order problem‐solving shares some similarities with the gradualist position developed by Weisberg across papers that span nearly half a century (e.g., Weisberg, 44; Weisberg & Suls, 45). Here, innovative thinking, problem‐solving and creativity are cast in terms of analytic processes driven by local analogies with past ideas and practice: There might be important discontinuities reflected in a finished work of art (say) with what was done before, but these discontinuities were the result of a temporarily‐extended process of small changes.…”

Section: Working Memory: the Psychometric Approachmentioning

confidence: 65%

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Insight Out: Making Creativity Visible

Vallée-Tourangeau¹,

March

2019

Journal of Creative Behavior

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Models of creative problem solving are predicated upon mental states to explain everything from the outcome of problem-solving experiments to the emergence of artistic creativity. We present two converging perspectives that describe a profoundly different ontological description of creativity. Our analysis proceeds from a distinction between first-order problem solving, where the agent interacts with a physical model of the problem and second-order problem solving, where the agent must cogitate a solution to a problem that is presented as a verbal description of a state of the world but where the agent does not or cannot transform physical elements of a problem. We acknowledge the recent evidence that foregrounds the importance of working memory in problem solving, including insight problem solving. However, we stress that the impressive psychometric success is obtained with a methodology that only measures second-order problem solving; we question whether first-order problem solving is equally well predicted by measures of cognitive or dispositional capacities. We propose that if mental simulation is replaced by the opportunity to engage with a physical model of a problem then the environment can provide affordances that help the participant to solve problems. In the second part of the paper, we present the subjective experience of an artist as he monitors the microdecisions that occur during the morphogenesis of a large, clay, sculptural installation. The testimony is a vivid demonstration that creative action occurs, not in the brain, but in the movement between the hand and the clay. Insight becomes outsight.

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Section: Working Memory: the Psychometric Approachmentioning

confidence: 61%

Section: Working Memory: the Psychometric Approachmentioning

confidence: 65%

Insight Out: Making Creativity Visible

Vallée-Tourangeau¹,

March

2019

Journal of Creative Behavior

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“…Cognitive psychologists working on insight problem solving often preface their work with short popular science vignettes of innovation and discovery (Weisberg, 2018). In their efforts to scale down problem solving in a manner that can be examined under laboratory conditions they focus on certain aspects of this innovation folklore, foremost among them is the alleged suddenness of the discovery after months of toiling in relative darkness, which in turn seems to point at a felicitous conceptual rearrangement in the head of the creative innovator.…”

Section: Insight Problem Solvingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping systemic resources in problem solving

Vallée-Tourangeau

2020

New Ideas in Psychology

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“…Historical and retrospective accounts often cast the experience of insight as a pivotal moment in problem solving, a consequential inflection point in conceptualisation that ushers in a significant breakthrough in design, science and art. Weisberg (2010Weisberg ( , 2018 reviewed a number of these moments, including Frank INSIGHT 5 Lloyd Wright's design of Fallingwater, Wilkins's invention of radar, and da Vinci's design for the aerial screw. Whether these moments actually resulted from an experience of insight, with a distinctive phenomenological signature and unconscious origin, is debatable.…”

Section: Insightmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insight

Vallée-Tourangeau

2020

The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible

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Insight is a form of comprehension that results in the connection between two hitherto unappreciated, unacknowledged or simply unknown ideas, and, consequently, expands the realm of the possible. Making these connections is a powerful driver of creativity and innovation. As a putative cognitive process, insight has exercised psychological researchers for over 100 years. Efforts to capture insight under laboratory conditions are constrained by exigencies of operationalisation and control, as well as by an implicit ontological position that casts insight as a property of the brain. As a result, psychological research has focused on what we term second-order problem solving, which is reasoning triggered by problems presented as propositions that describe states of the world. People are tasked with finding new connections among the problem elements, but these connections can only be made by manipulating a mental representation of the problem. Creative cognition outside the psychologist's laboratory involves a great deal of interaction with the world. In contrast to second-order problem solving, firstorder problem solving characterizes activities of embodied agents as they interact and manipulate the world around them. Creativity and insight emerge through a transactional process of transformation: physical features cue actions that change both the reasoner and the physical environment in which he or she is embedded.Insightful new possibles are realised through an active and mutually transforming exploration of the problem-solving environment. We discuss insight as an enacted process, involving action and perception. As a physical and perceptual activity, a degree of serendipity is inevitable and, in some circumstances, insight becomes 'outsight'. We identify eight key features of first-order creative cognition that map out a new programme of research on insight.

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Insight, problem solving, and creativity

Cited by 34 publications

References 1 publication

Insight Out: Making Creativity Visible

Insight Out: Making Creativity Visible

Mapping systemic resources in problem solving

Insight

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