At some point during a creative action something clicks, suddenly the
prospective problem solver just knows the solution to a problem, and a feeling
of joy and relief arises. This phenomenon, called Eureka experience, insight,
Aha moment, hunch, epiphany, illumination, or serendipity, has been part of
human narrations for thousands of years. It is the moment of a subjective
experience, a surprising, and sometimes a life-changing event. In this thesis,
I narrow down this moment 1. conceptually, 2. experientially, and 3.
temporally. The concept of emerging solutions has a multidisciplinary
background in Cognitive Science, Arts, Design, and Engineering. Through the
discussion of previous terminology and comparative reviews of historical
literature, I identify sources of ambiguity surrounding this phenomenon and
suggest unifying terms as the basis for interdisciplinary exploration. Tracking
the experience based on qualitative data from 11 creative practitioners, I
identify conflicting aspects of existing models of creative production. To
bridge this theoretical and disciplinary divide between iterative design
thinking and sequential models of creativity, I suggest a novel multi-layered
model. Empirical support for this proposal comes from Dira, a computer-based
open-ended experimental paradigm. As part of this thesis I developed the task
and 40 unique sets of stimuli and response items to collect dynamic measures of
the creative process and evade known problems of insightful tasks. Using Dira,
I identify the moment when solutions emerge from the number and duration of
mouse-interactions with the on-screen elements and the 124 participants’
self-reports. I provide an argument for the multi-layered model to explain a
discrepancy between the timing observed in Dira and existing sequential models.
Furthermore, I suggest that Eureka moments can be assessed on more than a
dichotomous scale, as the empirical data from interviews and Dira demonstrates
for this rich human experience. I conclude that the research on insight
benefits from an interdisciplinary approach and suggest Dira as an instrument
for future studies.
- Eureka Moment
- Aha! moment
- Architecture
- CogNovo
- Cognitive Innovation
- Cognitive Science
- Creativity
- Design Thinking
- Dira
- Emergent Solutions
- Epiphany
- Experimental Psychology
- Hunch
- Ill-defined Problems
- Illumination
- Creative Problem Solving
- Insight
- Mixed Methods Approach
- Multi-layered Model of Creativity
- Problem Solving
- Process-tracing Measures
- Qualitative Data
- Quantitative Analysis
- Serendipity
Investigating the Moment when Solutions emerge in Problem Solving
Lösche, F. (Author). 2018
Student thesis: PhD