The nature of insight

Abstract

Part 1 Introduction: the search for insight - grappling with gestalt psychology's unanswered questions, Richard E. Mayer insight and problem solving, Roger L. Dominowski and Pamela Dallob. Part 2 the puzzle-problem approach: demystification of cognitive insight - opportunistic assimilation and the prepared-mind perspective, Colleen M. Seifert et al the suddenness of insight, Janet E. Davidson prolegomena to theories of insight in problem solving - a taxonomy of problems, Robert W. Weisberg cognitive and affective components of insight, Mary L. Gick and Robert S. Lockhart getting into and out of mental ruts - a theory of fixation, incubation, and insight, Steven M. Smith. Part 3 The invention-based approach: creative insight and preinventive forms, Ronald A. Finke constraints on thinking in insight and invention, Matthew I. Isaak and Marcel Adam Just. Part 4 the great-minds approach: creative insight - the social dimension of a solitary moment, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Keith Sawyer how scientists really reason - scientific reasoning in real-world laboratories, Kevin Dunbar insight and affect in the history of science, Howard E. Gruber the inception of insight, Maria F. Ippolito and Ryan D. Tweney. Part 5 the metaphors-of-mind approach: foresight in insight? a Darwinian answer, Dean Keith Simonton insight in minds and genes, David N. Perkins an investment perspective on creative insight, Robert J. Sternberg and Todd I. Lubart. Epilogue: putting insight into perspective, Jonathan W. Schooler et al.