Insight and creativity in problem solving / edited by Kenneth J. Gilhooly, Linden J. Ball and Laura Macchi

This book was originally published as a special issue of Thinking & Reasoning

Includes bibliographical references and index

1. Insight and creative thinking processes: Routine and special / K.J. Gilhooly, Linden J. Ball, and Laura Macchi -- 2. Toward an integrated theory of insight in problem sovling / Robert W. Weisberg -- 3. The shifting sands of creative thinking: Connections to dual-process theory / Paul T. Sowden, Andrew Pringle, and Liane Gabora -- 4. Reasoned connections: A dual-process perspective on creative thought / Nathaniel Barr, Gordon Pennycook, Jennifer A. Stolz, and Jonathan A. Fugelsang -- 5. When distraction helps: Evidence that concurrent articulation and irrelevant speech can facilitate insight problem solving / Linden J. Ball, John E. Marsh, Damien Litchfield, Rebecca L. Cook, and Natalie Booth -- 6. A sketch is not enough: Dynamic external support increases creative insight on a guided synthesis task / David G. Pearson and Robert H. Logie -- 7. Incubation and cueing effects in problem-solving: Set aside the difficult problems but focus on the easy ones / Ut Na Sio and Thomas C. Ormerod -- 8. Incubation and suppression processes in creative problem solving / K.J. Gilhooly, G.J. Georgiou, M. Sirota, and A. Paphiti-Galeano -- 9. When analytic thought is challenged by a misunderstanding / L. Macchi and M. Bagassi -- Index

To date we have only a fragmentary understanding of the thought proceses that engender insightful solutions to problems that require a change in representation or the discovery of distant associations to presented information. We likewise have only a piecemeal understanding to the thinking that underpins creative problem solving, where solutions are needed that are new to the solver. Recently there has been a growing interest in removing the mystery from insight and creativity through better specified theories and theory-driven experimentation. The chapters in this volume reflect key developments in this expanding field of insight and creativity research. Collectively, the chapters converge on a nuanced view of insight and creative thinking as often arising from the interplay between two qualitatively distinct types of processes that interact to yield sudden, surprising and innovative solutions to problems that initially seemed impenetrable and resistant to the application of inventive ideas. This dual-process perspective, which capitalises on the distinction between 'special' (automatic, unconscious and associative) Type 1 processes and 'routine' (controlled, conscious and analytic) Type 2 processes, helps advance a theoretical understanding of insight and creativity, whilst also provoling important new research questions--back cover