Analytic problem solving

What is it?

When we engage in problem solving, we might take a deliberate, conscious, and methodological (or step-by-step, and you can often express the steps you took to reach a solution). Analytic problem solving is often contrasted with insight problem solving, which occurs in the "background".

While we might think of analysis and insight as separate problem solving processes, they usually occur in parallel and are complementary processes. For example, imagine you are working on a verbal puzzle. Would you wait for an insight to elucidate a solution, or would you work on the problem analytically, perhaps by testing different solutions? It is difficult to imagine (though not impossible) that someone may only wait for (or hope for) an insight rather than actively working on a solution (during which an insight may occur)!

Selective attention and analysis

While a distributed form of attention tends to be conducive for insight solving, a more selective form of attention is conducive for analytic solving. Selective attention refers to the ability to attend to some piece of information while ignoring or suppressing other information. For example, you could imagine looking at a single tree embedded in a forest while ignoring all of the other trees in that same forest.

In a few studies, we manipulated the selectivity attention through visual attention tasks. Before and after these visual attention tasks, we asked people to solve Compound Remote Associates problems and whether they solved the problems with insight or analysis. We then looked at how performing the visual attention task changed their problem solving; that is, did the solvers tend to improve insight or analytic solving after their attention was modulated? When our visual attention task putatively induced more selective attention, people tended to solve more problems with analysis (usually without any statistically reliable change or with a slight decrease in insight solving).

Relevant papers & presentations