University of Plymouth PEARL https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk 04 University of Plymouth Research Theses 01 Research Theses Main Collection 2018 Investigating the Moment when Solutions emerge in Problem Solving Losche, Frank http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/12838 University of Plymouth All content in PEARL is protected by copyright law. Author manuscripts are made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document. In the absence of an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher or author. Investigating the Moment when Solutions emerge in Problem Solving by Frank Lösche A thesis submitted to the University of Plymouth in partial fulfilment for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of Computing, Electronics and Mathematics Plymouth 2018 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author’s prior consent. Acknowledgements This work has been funded through a full studentship by the University of Ply- mouth and supported by the additional training receievd through the CogNovo programme. CogNovo is funded by EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme (FP7- PEOPLE-2013-ITN-604764) and the University of Plymouth. This work is part of the CogNovo Doctoral Training Programme and has been supervised by the director of studies Dr. Guido Bugmann (School of Computing, Electronics and Mathematics) and the additional supervisors Dr. Jeremy Goslin (School of Psychology), and Dr. Katharine Willis (School of Art, Design and Archi- tecture). iii Abstract Investigating the Moment when Solutions emerge in Problem Solving Frank Lösche At some point during a creative action something clicks, suddenly the prospec- tive 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 compara- tive 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 pro- duction. To bridge this theoretical and disciplinary divide between iterative de- sign 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 di- chotomous 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. iv Authors declaration At no time during the registration for the research degree has the author been registered for any other University award, without prior agreement of the Doc- toral College Quality Sub-Committee. Work submitted for this research degree at University of Plymouth has not formed part of any other degree for either at the University or at another establish- ment. This study was financed with the aid of a studentship from the University of Plymouth. A programme of advanced study was undertaken under the umbrella of CogNovo, an innovative doctoral research training funded by University of Plymouth and the EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-ITN-604764). This included week-long workshops on Research Methods, Experimental Methods, Compu- tational Modeling, Public Outreach and Social Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Scientific Mythodologies, and The Neural Basis For Creativity. Relevant scientific seminars and conferences were regularly attended at which work was often presented; external institutions were visited for consultation purposes and several papers prepared for publication. External Contacts: [email protected] Word count of main body of thesis: 56263 v Peer reviewed publications Kristensen, M. S., Loesche, F., & Maranan, D. S. (2017, November 21). Navigating Cognitive Innovation. AVANT, 8, 45–55. doi:10.26913/80s02017.0111.0005. Loesche, F., Goslin, J., & Bugmann, G. (2018, October). Paving the Way to Eureka — Introducing “Dira” as an Experimental Paradigm to Observe the Process of Creative Problem Solving. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018. 01773. Loesche, F., & Łucznik, K. (2017, November 21). Our GIFT to all of us: GA(Y)AM: Preface. AVANT, 8, 13–16. doi:10.26913/80s02017.0111.0001. Łucznik, K., & Loesche, F. (2017, November 21). Dance improvisational cognition. AVANT, 8, 227–238. doi:10.26913/80s02017.0111.0021. Marshall, J., Loesche, F., Linehan, C., Johnson, D., & Martelli, B. (2015, August). Grand push auto: A car based exertion game. CHI Play, 2015, 631–636. doi:10. 1145/2793107.2810314. Oztop, P., Loesche, F., Maranan, D. S., Francis, K. B., Tyagi, V., & Torre, I. (2017, November 21). (Not So) Dangerous Liaisons: A Framework for Evaluating Collaborative Research Projects. AVANT, 8, 167–179. doi:10.26913/80s02017. 0111.0016. Taranu, M., & Loesche, F. (2017, November 21). Spectres of Ambiguity in Divergent Thinking and Perceptual Switching. AVANT, 8, 121–133. doi:10.26913/ 80s02017.0111.0012. Torre, I., & Loesche, F. (2016, December). Overcoming impasses in conversations: A creative business. Creativity. Theories – Research – Applications, 3(2), 244– 260. doi:10.1515/ctra-2016-0016. Other publications Loesche, F. (2015, January). Get ready for an idea - a brief comparison of existing techniques to support cognitive innovation. In Off the lip 2015 (Vol. 1, pp. 173– 180). Maranan, D. S., Loesche, F., & Denham, S. L. (2015, August). Cognovo: Cognitive innovation for technological, artistic, and social domains. In Proceedings of the 21st international symposium on electronic arts (Vol. 2015). doi:10.5281/ zenodo.1172841. Presentations and Contributions SOU Creativity Conference Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR, USA. Oral presentation. No Trainspotting: Eureka moments and the timetables of creative processes. August 2018. University of California Berkeley, California, USA. Invited talk. Collaboration and Cognitive Innovation: the Eureka Moment, Floating Brains, Reimagining the Body, and Acoustic Osteology August 2018. UK Creativity 2018 Canterbury Christ Church, UK. Oral Presentation. Your thought is no train: Using Eureka moments to trace creative processes. May 2018. AVANT, Vol. VIII, Special Issue Centre for Philosophical Research, Warsaw, PL. Editor. Collaborative Approaches to Cognitive Innovation November 2017. CREATE Research Hub University of Buckingham, UK. Invited talk. How to study the creative process November 2017. Creativity Week Conference Radboud University Nijmegen, NL. Poster pre- sentation. Understanding problem solving as a multi-layered process. October 2017. Off the Lip 2017 CogNovo, University of Plymouth, UK. Event organisation. CogNovo Colloquium on Experiences and Applications of Cognitive Innovation Au- gust 2017. UK Creativity 2017 Napier University, UK. Best poster award. If time is the essence, we don’t want to interfere. May 2017. Off the Lip 2016 CogNovo, University of Plymouth, UK. Event organisation. Bizarre Bazaar and Manufactory October 2016. ColLaboratoire2016 CogNovo, University of Plymouth, UK. Workshop leader. Do You Hear What I See? August 2016. CI Conference 2016 Cognition Institute, University of Plymouth, UK. Oral presentation. How Do Architects Create? July 2016. PUSoP2016 University of Plymouth, UK. Poster presentation. Get ready for an idea – A brief comparison of existing techniques to support cognitive innovation June 2016. Neural Basis for Creativity CogNovo, University of Plymouth, UK. Poster presentation. Time Course of a Eureka Experiment April 2016. CI Conference 2015 Cognition Institute, University of Plymouth, UK. Poster presentation. Nothing to see here or Is there a special process during insightful problem solving? 2015. Signed: Date: Contents Acknowledgements iii Abstract iv Author’s declaration v 1 Introduction 1 2 Staking a claim: An excavation in the literature 4 2.1 Methodology ............................. 4 2.1.1 The relationship to Cognitive Innovation ......... 5 2.2 Terminology ............................