Graph-Theoretic Confirmation of Restructuring During Insight

Abstract

The “flash of insight” sometimes observed in problem solving and in scientific discovery has been thought to be due to a sudden cognitive restructuring of the problem situation Direct confirmation of restructuring has been difficult without an independent procedure for determining cognitive structure Graph structures were derived from judgments of concept relatedness made by subjects who had an insight and by several groups who either did not or could not have the insight The graphs of the solvers differed from the graphs of subjects who tried and failed, those who listened to the solvers, and those who were given the solution When other subjects in a subsequent experiment repeatedly judged similarity of pairs of concepts, there was evidence that those connections critical to the new cognitive order were targeted long before there was the breathtaking cognitive reorganization