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Those Eureka Moments

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the lookit-all-them-perty-equations-in-there dept.

Phoe6 writes "If you're one of those insufferable people who can finish the Saturday New York Times crossword puzzle, you probably have a gift for insight. The puzzles always have an underlying hint to solving them, but on Saturdays that clue is insanely obtuse. If you had all day, you could try a zillion different combinations and eventually figure it out. But with insight, you'd experience the usual clueless confusion, until--voilà--the fog clears and you get the clue, which suddenly seems obvious. The sudden flash of insight that precedes such "Aha!" moments is characteristic of many types of cognitive processes besides problem-solving, including memory retrieval, language comprehension, and various forms of creativity. Although different problem-solving strategies share many common attributes, insight-derived solutions appear to be unique in several ways. PLoS Biology explains the Neural Basis of Solving Problems with Insight. The Complete Research Article is here."

4 of 209 comments (clear)

  1. Taking a break by justinmc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I find the best thing to do is walk away from the problem for a while - could be for a cup of coffee or you could sleep on it etc. Either you look at the problem again and you just see the answer, or you are brushing your teeth and you suddenly have the answer in your head! Don't ask me why.. IANABS (I Am Not A Brain Scientist!!)

    1. Re:Taking a break by Tooky · · Score: 5, Insightful

      With code I always find that if I try to show a colleague a problem, I almost always solve it, often while I'm showing them and before they've even had chance to think about it. I guess this works in the same way as taking a break, because it allows you to think about it in a different way. When you demonstrate the bug to someone else, your concious mind isn't focusing on the problem and that moment of insight seems to happen.

  2. Re:Superior attitude by FlippyBoy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually, thought processes are quite different among people. Growing up in different cultures, and speaking different languages can bring about very distinct ways of thinking about things. Even among similar people, family environments shape the way we process information. Even within one family, if one child is raised on puzzles and interactive games with strategies, s/he will most likely grow up with a vastly different thought proces than one brought up on television. There's still so much about the brain we don't understand, it's impossible to say we all think alike.

  3. apple, the answer is apple. by mattyp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    pineapple, crabapple applesauce