When Distraction Helps: Evidence that Concurrent Articulation and Irrelevant Speech Can Facilitate Insight Problem Solving.

Linden Ball, John Marsh, Damien Litchfield, Rebecca Cook, Natalie Booth

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (journal)peer-review

56 Citations (Scopus)
383 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We report an experiment investigating the “special-process” theory of insight problem solving, which claims that insight arises from non-conscious, non-reportable processes that enable problem re-structuring. We predicted that reducing opportunities for speech-based processing during insight problem solving should permit special processes to function more effectively, thereby facilitating insight. We distracted speech-based processing by using either articulatory suppression or irrelevant speech, with findings for these conditions supporting the predicted insight facilitation effect relative to silent working or thinking aloud. The latter condition was included to investigate the currently contested effect of “verbal overshadowing” on insight, whereby thinking aloud is claimed to hinder the operation of special, non-reportable processes. Whilst verbal overshadowing was not evident in final solution rates, there was nevertheless support for verbal overshadowing up to and beyond the mid-point of the available problem solving time. Overall our data support a special-process theory of insight, whilst also pointing to the role of moderator variables (e.g., available time for solution) in determining the presence or absence of effects predicted by the special process account.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)76-96
Number of pages21
JournalThinking & Reasoning
Volume21
Issue number1
Early online date16 Jul 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Jan 2015

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'When Distraction Helps: Evidence that Concurrent Articulation and Irrelevant Speech Can Facilitate Insight Problem Solving.'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this