Sudden insight is associated with shutting out visual inputs.
Creative ideas seem often to appear when we close our eyes, stare at a blank wall, or gaze out of a window--all signs of shutting out distractions and turning attention inward. Prior research has demonstrated that attention-related brain areas are differently active when people solve problems with sudden insight (the Aha! phenomenon), relative to deliberate, analytic solving. We directly investigated the relationship between attention deployment and problem solving by recording eye movements and blinks, which are overt indicators of attention, as people solved short, visually presented problems. In the preparation period, before problems eventually solved by insight, participants blinked more frequently and longer, and made fewer fixations, than before problems eventually solved by analysis. Immediately prior to solutions, participants blinked longer and looked away from the problem more often when solving by insight than when solving analytically. These phenomena extend prior research with a direct demonstration of dynamic differences in attention as people solve problems with sudden insight versus analytically.
Department of Psychology, Milano-Bicocca University, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, 1, 20126, Milano, Italy. c.salvi4@campus.unimib.it.|Department of Psychology and Cognitive Brain Mapping Group, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA. c.salvi4@campus.unimib.it.
Carola
C
Salvi
Department of Psychology, Milano-Bicocca University, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, 1, 20126, Milano, Italy.|NeuroMI-Milan Center for Neuroscience, Milano-Bicocca University, Milan, Italy.
Emanuela
E
Bricolo
Department of Psychology and Cognitive Brain Mapping Group, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
Steven L
SL
Franconeri
Department of Psychology, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
John
J
Kounios
Department of Psychology and Cognitive Brain Mapping Group, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
Mark
M
Beeman
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003405:Creativity; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
Cognitive neuroscience; Creativity; Eye movements; Problem solving; Visual attention