title: Does incubation enhance problem solving? A meta-analytic review.
abstract: A meta-analytic review of empirical studies that have investigated incubation effects on problem solving is reported. Although some researchers have reported increased solution rates after an incubation period (i.e., a period of time in which a problem is set aside prior to further attempts to solve), others have failed to find effects. The analysis examined the contributions of moderators such as problem type, presence of solution-relevant or misleading cues, and lengths of preparation and incubation periods to incubation effect sizes. The authors identified a positive incubation effect, with divergent thinking tasks benefiting more than linguistic and visual insight tasks from incubation. Longer preparation periods gave a greater incubation effect, whereas filling an incubation period with high cognitive demand tasks gave a smaller incubation effect. Surprisingly, low cognitive demand tasks yielded a stronger incubation effect than did rest during an incubation period when solving linguistic insight problems. The existence of multiple types of incubation effect provides evidence for differential invocation of knowledge-based vs. strategic solution processes across different classes of problem, and it suggests that the conditions under which incubation can be used as a practical technique for enhancing problem solving must be designed with care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, UK.
authors.forename: Ut Na
authors.initials: UN
authors.lastname: Sio
authors.forename: Thomas C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Ormerod
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D001364:Awareness; D003405:Creativity; D003463:Cues; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008037:Linguistics; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011340:Problem Solving