Learning from insight - disentangling cognitive and affective components of the insight memory advantage

• Applicant: Dr. Amory Danek
• Subject Area: Developmental and Educational Psychology ; General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2014 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 267202273

While solving difficult problems, humans sometimes experience moments of insight ("Aha! moment") - when the solution suddenly and unexpectedly pops into mind. The present research project aims at understanding why problem solvers recall such insightful solutions better than solutions without insight. Although this memory advantage is often reported, its working mechanism remains unclear. If we succeed in understanding the basis of the memory effect, this could have important implications for teaching, e.g. students could be helped to better memorize study material by experiencing more insights. Theoretically, two components of insight can be differentiated: Cognitive component (a sudden change in the perception of a problem, leading to solution) and affective component (strong feelings of joy and surprise upon finding a solution). We ask whether the insight memory advantage is modulated only by the cognitive or only by the affective component or whether both are required for the memory effect to occur. To answer this question, we will use a completely new problem solving paradigm: Magic tricks. Participants will be presented with short video clips of magic tricks, with the task of discovering the magician's secret method. We could show previously that the memory advantage also exists for the solutions to magic tricks. The proposed research project comprises three studies, combining the magic trick paradigm with methods for assessing the two insight components. Participants' problem solving process will be tracked with eye-tracking and think-aloud protocols. By alternately manipulating (increasing or reducing) the cognitive and the affective component we will investigate their particular influence on memory performance (recall of solutions after 14 days).

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professorin Dr. Jennifer Wiley