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Mareike Wieth

Albion College, Psychology, Faculty Member

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Constanze Beierlein

The University of Queensland, Australia

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Papers by Mareike Wieth

UC Merced Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society Title Motivation in Insight versus Incremental Problem Solving Publication Date Motivation in Insight versus Incremental Problem Solving

Previous studies have shown a correlation between initial motivation and subsequent performance (... more Previous studies have shown a correlation between initial motivation and subsequent performance (e.g. Vollmeyer, Rheinberg, & Burns, 1998). However, it it is possible that this relationship is due to a third factor such as general ability. To address this issue, our participants completed insight as well as incremental problems. These two types of problems have been shown to differ both theoretically and empirically due to differential underlying processes (e.g., Metcalfe & Wiebe, 1987). Results showed that motivation (in particular, interest) correlated with incremental problem solving but not with insight problem solving. The results were replicated with two different sets of problems solved by different groups of participants. Motivation was measured before solving the problems, so the difference between these two types of problems provides us with evidence that motivation is causal in producing better problem solving performance. Further, it suggests that when processes differ, ...

Time of Day Effects on Insight Problem Solving

PsycEXTRA Dataset

Not all musicians are creative: Creativity requires more than simply playing music

Psychology of Music, 2014

Musical training has been found to be associated with increased creativity. However, it is not cl... more Musical training has been found to be associated with increased creativity. However, it is not clear whether increased creativity, particularly divergent thinking, is associated with music expertise due to knowledge and skill, or if increased creativity arises from participation in the creation of music through practices such as improvisation and composition. This study investigated how level of music expertise and engagement in the creation of music relate to divergent thinking in musically trained adults (musicians). Sixty participants of varying music expertise were tested for divergent thinking using a modified version of Guilford’s (1967) alternative uses task, in which participants listed creative uses for two music items and two non-music items. Results indicate that musicians who create music listed more creative uses for music items than non-musicians and musicians who do not create music. For non-music items, participants did not display differences in divergent thinking.

Incentives and the Processing of Irrelevant Information in Word Problems

PsycEXTRA Dataset

Time of day effects on problem solving: When the non-optimal is optimal

Thinking & Reasoning, 2011

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the "Content")... more Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the "Content") contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.

Solution Priming in the Remote Associates Task

PsycEXTRA Dataset

Running head: CAUSALITY IN REASONING Causality in reasoning 1 The collider principle in causal reasoning: Why the Monty Hall dilemma is so hard Address for correspondence

Causality in reasoning 2 Glymour (2001) speculated that people have difficulty applying the colli... more Causality in reasoning 2 Glymour (2001) speculated that people have difficulty applying the collider principle when two independent causal factors influence a single outcome. The principle states that such causal factors are dependent conditional on the outcome. The Monty Hall Dilemma (MHD) has this causal structure, so we tested the thesis that people find the MHD hard because they fail to understand the implications of its causal structure. Four experiments showed that participants performed better in versions of the MHD involving competition, which emphasizes causality. This manipulation resulted in more correct responses to questions about the process in the MHD and a counterfactual that changed its causal structure. Correct responses to these questions were associated with solving the MHD regardless of condition. In addition, training on the collider principle transferred to a standard version of the MHD. The MHD taps a deeper question, when does knowing about one thing tell us...

I see what you see: Eye movements in real-world scenes are affected by perceived direction of gaze

Abstract. In this chapter, we report an investigation the influence of the saliency of another pe... more Abstract. In this chapter, we report an investigation the influence of the saliency of another person’s direction of gaze on an observer’s eye movements through real-world scenes. Participants ’ eye movements were recorded while they viewed a sequence of scene photographs that told a story. A subset of the scenes contained an actor. The actor’s face was highly likely to be fixated, and when it was, the observer’s next saccade was more likely to be toward the object that was the focus of the ac-tor’s gaze than in any other direction. Furthermore, when eye movement patterns did not show an immediate saccade to the focused object, ob-servers were nonetheless more likely to fixate the focused object than a control object within close temporal proximity of fixation on the face. We conclude that during real-world scene perception, observers are sen-sitive to another’s direction of gaze and use it to help guide their own eye movements. 1

Causality and Reasoning: The Monty Hall Dilemma

In the Monty Hall Dilemma (MHD) contestants try to choose which of three doors conceals a prize. ... more In the Monty Hall Dilemma (MHD) contestants try to choose which of three doors conceals a prize. After selecting a door, one of the other doors is opened by a host who knows where the prize is, but always reveals a dud. Contestants are then asked if they want to stay with their first choice, or switch to the other unopened door? Switching yields a two-thirds chance of winning, but most people have difficulty accepting this answer. Glymour (2001) points out that central to the MHD is a particular causal structure, the collider principle. We hypothesized that an isomorphic version of the MHD that would help participants understand its causal structure would improve their performance. Making the MHD a form of competition should be one way to achieve this. We confirmed this by showing that in a competition version of the MHD participants were much more likely to solve the problem, and more likely to answer a counterfactual question indicating a correct understanding of the problem's...

Effects of Gesture on Analogical Problem Solving: When the Hands Lead you Astray

We investigated the role of speech-accompanying gestures in analogical problem solving. Participa... more We investigated the role of speech-accompanying gestures in analogical problem solving. Participants attempted to solve Duncker’s (1945) Radiation Problem after reading and retelling a story that described an analogous solution in a different domain. Participants were instructed to gesture, instructed not to gesture, or given no instructions regarding gesture as they retold the story. Participants who were instructed to gesture as they retold the analogous story were more likely to mention perceptual details in their description and less likely to apply the analogous solution to the problem than participants who were instructed not to gesture. These results suggest that gestures can be detrimental to analogous problem solving when the perceptual elements of a story are irrelevant to its schematic similarity with a problem.

College Context Effects and Their Infl uence on Media Recall

PSI CHI JOURNAL OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH | SPRING 2009 Copyright 2009 by Psi Chi, The Internatio... more PSI CHI JOURNAL OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH | SPRING 2009 Copyright 2009 by Psi Chi, The International Honor Society in Psychology (Vol. 14, No. 1/ISSN 1089-4136) When encoding information into memory, people not only process and store the target information, but they also process the information surrounding the target object or event. This additional information can then later help them retrieve the target and can enhance memory across a variety of situations. Among the additional information that is encoded are cues from the context in which the target memory was formed. These context effects enhance retrieval by providing additional retrieval cues for the target memory. Perhaps one of the most striking examples of context effects is the physical context effect. In studies of physical context effects, the actual physical location of participants can infl uence performance. For example, Godden and Baddeley (1975) found compelling evidence for context-dependent memory when looking at ...

A Classroom Study on the Role of Prior Knowledge and Retrieval Tool in the Testing Effect

Psychology Learning & Teaching

This quasi-experimental study investigated the role of prior psychology knowledge and in-class re... more This quasi-experimental study investigated the role of prior psychology knowledge and in-class retrieval activity in the testing effect. Undergraduate introductory psychology students ( N = 53) from two classes at a small liberal arts college practiced retrieving information in class with multiple-choice quizzing and concept mapping. Prior psychology knowledge was measured using a 25-item multiple-choice pretest. Both students with high and low prior psychology knowledge had higher scores on examination material that was practiced in class with retrieval-based concept mapping compared to traditional multiple-choice quizzes and to no organized in-class retrieval activity at all. Only students with high prior psychology knowledge had higher scores on quizzed material compared to no organized in-class retrieval practice, and these scores were lower than those on material that was practiced with in-class concept mapping. In comparison to administering multiple-choice quiz questions, a m...

An exploratory study of creativity and eating disorders

Journal of Eating Disorders, Oct 19, 2017

BackgroundWe examined whether cognitive rigidity associated with having an eating disorder genera... more BackgroundWe examined whether cognitive rigidity associated with having an eating disorder generalized to creativity.MethodOne hundred twelve participants from the participant pool of an Australian university were given a measure of disordered eating (EDE-Q), asked if they had ever had a diagnosis of an eating disorder (16 reported yes), and given 3 min to generate alternative uses for a paper-clip. The alternative uses task yielded measures of creative fluency, originality, elaboration and flexibility.ResultsA logistic regression found that only lower flexibility predicted a self-reported ED diagnosis. Across the spectrum of disordered eating behaviour there was no association between creativity measures and EDE-Q global scores.ConclusionOur results were consistent with previous findings of an association between cognitive inflexibility and having an ED. However we found no evidence that cognitive inflexibility generalized to creativity more broadly. Our results may lend support to Cognitive Remediation Therapy, but further study is required.

The relationship between working memory and insight depends on moderators: Reply to Chuderski and Jastrzêbski (2017)

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition

Chuderski and Jastrzêbski (2017) found a positive relationship between working memory capacity an... more Chuderski and Jastrzêbski (2017) found a positive relationship between working memory capacity and insight problem solving, and concluded that "people with less effective cognition" are therefore "less creative" (p. 2003). This interpretation discounts substantial evidence that devoting less executive control facilitates insight. We develop an initial framework for understanding these contradictory findings. We describe (a) how both working memory-demanding processes and less-demanding associative processes impact insight and (b) how individual, situational, and task-specific factors interact to influence whether greater working memory is a help or a hindrance. We propose that insight will be supported if the level of executive control used matches the level of control optimal for different phases of insight problem solving. We use this framework to explain why Chuderski and Jastrzębski's (2017) findings may have differed from DeCaro, Van Stockum, and Wieth (2016), and offer direction for a more unified account of insight problem solving. (PsycINFO Database Record

Use of a Creative Problem Solving (CPS) Approach in a Senior Thesis Course to Advance Undergraduate Publications

Frontiers in Psychology

Conflicts and Consistencies in Creativity Research and Teaching

Teaching of Psychology

The interdisciplinary topic of creativity is both fascinating and controversial. In this review, ... more The interdisciplinary topic of creativity is both fascinating and controversial. In this review, we begin by highlighting the many ways that researchers conceptualize and define creativity, focusing in particular on the difference between everyday creativity and creativity associated with exceptional breakthroughs in thinking. In addition, we discuss the role of divergent and convergent creativity and the role that domain knowledge plays in creativity. Furthermore, we highlight how specific factors such as individual differences and time of day influence creativity. We conclude by discussing the impact of current educational practices on creativity in psychology classrooms.

Motivation in Insight versus Incremental Problem Solving

Previous studies have shown a correlation between initial motivation and subsequent performance (... more Previous studies have shown a correlation between initial motivation and subsequent performance (e.g. . However, it it is possible that this relationship is due to a third factor such as general ability. To address this issue, our participants completed insight as well as incremental problems. These two types of problems have been shown to differ both theoretically and empirically due to differential underlying processes (e.g., . Results showed that motivation (in particular, interest) correlated with incremental problem solving but not with insight problem solving. The results were replicated with two different sets of problems solved by different groups of participants. Motivation was measured before solving the problems, so the difference between these two types of problems provides us with evidence that motivation is causal in producing better problem solving performance. Further, it suggests that when processes differ, motivational effect on performance will differ.

When Higher Working Memory Capacity Hinders Insight

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2015

Higher working memory capacity (WMC) improves performance on a range of cognitive and academic ta... more Higher working memory capacity (WMC) improves performance on a range of cognitive and academic tasks. However, a greater ability to control attention sometimes leads individuals with higher WMC to persist in using complex, attention-demanding approaches that are suboptimal for a given task. We examined whether higher WMC would hinder insight problem solving, which is thought to rely on associative processes that operate largely outside of close attentional control. In addition, we examined whether characteristics of the insight problems influence whether this negative relationship will be revealed. In Experiment 1, participants completed matchstick arithmetic problems, which require a similar initial problem representation for all problems. Higher WMC was associated with less accurate insight problem solving. In Experiment 2, participants completed insight word problems, which require substantially different representations for each problem. Higher WMC was again negatively associated with insight, but only after statistically controlling for shared variance between insight and incremental problem-solving accuracy. These findings suggest that WMC may benefit performance on fundamental processes common to both incremental and insight problem solving (e.g., initial problem representation), but hinder performance on the processes that are unique to insight (e.g., solution and restructuring). By considering the WMC of the individual, and the nature of the insight task, we may better understand the process of insight and how to best support it.

When the Hands Lead You Astray: The Effects of Gesture on Analogous Problem Solving

PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2013

How Mechanisms of Causality Influence the Use of Base Rates in Probability Estimates

PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2002

UC Merced Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society Title Motivation in Insight versus Incremental Problem Solving Publication Date Motivation in Insight versus Incremental Problem Solving

Previous studies have shown a correlation between initial motivation and subsequent performance (... more Previous studies have shown a correlation between initial motivation and subsequent performance (e.g. Vollmeyer, Rheinberg, & Burns, 1998). However, it it is possible that this relationship is due to a third factor such as general ability. To address this issue, our participants completed insight as well as incremental problems. These two types of problems have been shown to differ both theoretically and empirically due to differential underlying processes (e.g., Metcalfe & Wiebe, 1987). Results showed that motivation (in particular, interest) correlated with incremental problem solving but not with insight problem solving. The results were replicated with two different sets of problems solved by different groups of participants. Motivation was measured before solving the problems, so the difference between these two types of problems provides us with evidence that motivation is causal in producing better problem solving performance. Further, it suggests that when processes differ, ...

Time of Day Effects on Insight Problem Solving

PsycEXTRA Dataset

Not all musicians are creative: Creativity requires more than simply playing music

Psychology of Music, 2014

Musical training has been found to be associated with increased creativity. However, it is not cl... more Musical training has been found to be associated with increased creativity. However, it is not clear whether increased creativity, particularly divergent thinking, is associated with music expertise due to knowledge and skill, or if increased creativity arises from participation in the creation of music through practices such as improvisation and composition. This study investigated how level of music expertise and engagement in the creation of music relate to divergent thinking in musically trained adults (musicians). Sixty participants of varying music expertise were tested for divergent thinking using a modified version of Guilford’s (1967) alternative uses task, in which participants listed creative uses for two music items and two non-music items. Results indicate that musicians who create music listed more creative uses for music items than non-musicians and musicians who do not create music. For non-music items, participants did not display differences in divergent thinking.

Incentives and the Processing of Irrelevant Information in Word Problems

PsycEXTRA Dataset

Time of day effects on problem solving: When the non-optimal is optimal

Thinking & Reasoning, 2011

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the "Content")... more Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the "Content") contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.

Solution Priming in the Remote Associates Task

PsycEXTRA Dataset

Running head: CAUSALITY IN REASONING Causality in reasoning 1 The collider principle in causal reasoning: Why the Monty Hall dilemma is so hard Address for correspondence

Causality in reasoning 2 Glymour (2001) speculated that people have difficulty applying the colli... more Causality in reasoning 2 Glymour (2001) speculated that people have difficulty applying the collider principle when two independent causal factors influence a single outcome. The principle states that such causal factors are dependent conditional on the outcome. The Monty Hall Dilemma (MHD) has this causal structure, so we tested the thesis that people find the MHD hard because they fail to understand the implications of its causal structure. Four experiments showed that participants performed better in versions of the MHD involving competition, which emphasizes causality. This manipulation resulted in more correct responses to questions about the process in the MHD and a counterfactual that changed its causal structure. Correct responses to these questions were associated with solving the MHD regardless of condition. In addition, training on the collider principle transferred to a standard version of the MHD. The MHD taps a deeper question, when does knowing about one thing tell us...

I see what you see: Eye movements in real-world scenes are affected by perceived direction of gaze

Abstract. In this chapter, we report an investigation the influence of the saliency of another pe... more Abstract. In this chapter, we report an investigation the influence of the saliency of another person’s direction of gaze on an observer’s eye movements through real-world scenes. Participants ’ eye movements were recorded while they viewed a sequence of scene photographs that told a story. A subset of the scenes contained an actor. The actor’s face was highly likely to be fixated, and when it was, the observer’s next saccade was more likely to be toward the object that was the focus of the ac-tor’s gaze than in any other direction. Furthermore, when eye movement patterns did not show an immediate saccade to the focused object, ob-servers were nonetheless more likely to fixate the focused object than a control object within close temporal proximity of fixation on the face. We conclude that during real-world scene perception, observers are sen-sitive to another’s direction of gaze and use it to help guide their own eye movements. 1

Causality and Reasoning: The Monty Hall Dilemma

In the Monty Hall Dilemma (MHD) contestants try to choose which of three doors conceals a prize. ... more In the Monty Hall Dilemma (MHD) contestants try to choose which of three doors conceals a prize. After selecting a door, one of the other doors is opened by a host who knows where the prize is, but always reveals a dud. Contestants are then asked if they want to stay with their first choice, or switch to the other unopened door? Switching yields a two-thirds chance of winning, but most people have difficulty accepting this answer. Glymour (2001) points out that central to the MHD is a particular causal structure, the collider principle. We hypothesized that an isomorphic version of the MHD that would help participants understand its causal structure would improve their performance. Making the MHD a form of competition should be one way to achieve this. We confirmed this by showing that in a competition version of the MHD participants were much more likely to solve the problem, and more likely to answer a counterfactual question indicating a correct understanding of the problem's...

Effects of Gesture on Analogical Problem Solving: When the Hands Lead you Astray

We investigated the role of speech-accompanying gestures in analogical problem solving. Participa... more We investigated the role of speech-accompanying gestures in analogical problem solving. Participants attempted to solve Duncker’s (1945) Radiation Problem after reading and retelling a story that described an analogous solution in a different domain. Participants were instructed to gesture, instructed not to gesture, or given no instructions regarding gesture as they retold the story. Participants who were instructed to gesture as they retold the analogous story were more likely to mention perceptual details in their description and less likely to apply the analogous solution to the problem than participants who were instructed not to gesture. These results suggest that gestures can be detrimental to analogous problem solving when the perceptual elements of a story are irrelevant to its schematic similarity with a problem.

College Context Effects and Their Infl uence on Media Recall

PSI CHI JOURNAL OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH | SPRING 2009 Copyright 2009 by Psi Chi, The Internatio... more PSI CHI JOURNAL OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH | SPRING 2009 Copyright 2009 by Psi Chi, The International Honor Society in Psychology (Vol. 14, No. 1/ISSN 1089-4136) When encoding information into memory, people not only process and store the target information, but they also process the information surrounding the target object or event. This additional information can then later help them retrieve the target and can enhance memory across a variety of situations. Among the additional information that is encoded are cues from the context in which the target memory was formed. These context effects enhance retrieval by providing additional retrieval cues for the target memory. Perhaps one of the most striking examples of context effects is the physical context effect. In studies of physical context effects, the actual physical location of participants can infl uence performance. For example, Godden and Baddeley (1975) found compelling evidence for context-dependent memory when looking at ...

A Classroom Study on the Role of Prior Knowledge and Retrieval Tool in the Testing Effect

Psychology Learning & Teaching

This quasi-experimental study investigated the role of prior psychology knowledge and in-class re... more This quasi-experimental study investigated the role of prior psychology knowledge and in-class retrieval activity in the testing effect. Undergraduate introductory psychology students ( N = 53) from two classes at a small liberal arts college practiced retrieving information in class with multiple-choice quizzing and concept mapping. Prior psychology knowledge was measured using a 25-item multiple-choice pretest. Both students with high and low prior psychology knowledge had higher scores on examination material that was practiced in class with retrieval-based concept mapping compared to traditional multiple-choice quizzes and to no organized in-class retrieval activity at all. Only students with high prior psychology knowledge had higher scores on quizzed material compared to no organized in-class retrieval practice, and these scores were lower than those on material that was practiced with in-class concept mapping. In comparison to administering multiple-choice quiz questions, a m...

An exploratory study of creativity and eating disorders

Journal of Eating Disorders, Oct 19, 2017

BackgroundWe examined whether cognitive rigidity associated with having an eating disorder genera... more BackgroundWe examined whether cognitive rigidity associated with having an eating disorder generalized to creativity.MethodOne hundred twelve participants from the participant pool of an Australian university were given a measure of disordered eating (EDE-Q), asked if they had ever had a diagnosis of an eating disorder (16 reported yes), and given 3 min to generate alternative uses for a paper-clip. The alternative uses task yielded measures of creative fluency, originality, elaboration and flexibility.ResultsA logistic regression found that only lower flexibility predicted a self-reported ED diagnosis. Across the spectrum of disordered eating behaviour there was no association between creativity measures and EDE-Q global scores.ConclusionOur results were consistent with previous findings of an association between cognitive inflexibility and having an ED. However we found no evidence that cognitive inflexibility generalized to creativity more broadly. Our results may lend support to Cognitive Remediation Therapy, but further study is required.

The relationship between working memory and insight depends on moderators: Reply to Chuderski and Jastrzêbski (2017)

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition

Chuderski and Jastrzêbski (2017) found a positive relationship between working memory capacity an... more Chuderski and Jastrzêbski (2017) found a positive relationship between working memory capacity and insight problem solving, and concluded that "people with less effective cognition" are therefore "less creative" (p. 2003). This interpretation discounts substantial evidence that devoting less executive control facilitates insight. We develop an initial framework for understanding these contradictory findings. We describe (a) how both working memory-demanding processes and less-demanding associative processes impact insight and (b) how individual, situational, and task-specific factors interact to influence whether greater working memory is a help or a hindrance. We propose that insight will be supported if the level of executive control used matches the level of control optimal for different phases of insight problem solving. We use this framework to explain why Chuderski and Jastrzębski's (2017) findings may have differed from DeCaro, Van Stockum, and Wieth (2016), and offer direction for a more unified account of insight problem solving. (PsycINFO Database Record

Use of a Creative Problem Solving (CPS) Approach in a Senior Thesis Course to Advance Undergraduate Publications

Frontiers in Psychology

Conflicts and Consistencies in Creativity Research and Teaching

Teaching of Psychology

The interdisciplinary topic of creativity is both fascinating and controversial. In this review, ... more The interdisciplinary topic of creativity is both fascinating and controversial. In this review, we begin by highlighting the many ways that researchers conceptualize and define creativity, focusing in particular on the difference between everyday creativity and creativity associated with exceptional breakthroughs in thinking. In addition, we discuss the role of divergent and convergent creativity and the role that domain knowledge plays in creativity. Furthermore, we highlight how specific factors such as individual differences and time of day influence creativity. We conclude by discussing the impact of current educational practices on creativity in psychology classrooms.

Motivation in Insight versus Incremental Problem Solving

Previous studies have shown a correlation between initial motivation and subsequent performance (... more Previous studies have shown a correlation between initial motivation and subsequent performance (e.g. . However, it it is possible that this relationship is due to a third factor such as general ability. To address this issue, our participants completed insight as well as incremental problems. These two types of problems have been shown to differ both theoretically and empirically due to differential underlying processes (e.g., . Results showed that motivation (in particular, interest) correlated with incremental problem solving but not with insight problem solving. The results were replicated with two different sets of problems solved by different groups of participants. Motivation was measured before solving the problems, so the difference between these two types of problems provides us with evidence that motivation is causal in producing better problem solving performance. Further, it suggests that when processes differ, motivational effect on performance will differ.

When Higher Working Memory Capacity Hinders Insight

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2015

Higher working memory capacity (WMC) improves performance on a range of cognitive and academic ta... more Higher working memory capacity (WMC) improves performance on a range of cognitive and academic tasks. However, a greater ability to control attention sometimes leads individuals with higher WMC to persist in using complex, attention-demanding approaches that are suboptimal for a given task. We examined whether higher WMC would hinder insight problem solving, which is thought to rely on associative processes that operate largely outside of close attentional control. In addition, we examined whether characteristics of the insight problems influence whether this negative relationship will be revealed. In Experiment 1, participants completed matchstick arithmetic problems, which require a similar initial problem representation for all problems. Higher WMC was associated with less accurate insight problem solving. In Experiment 2, participants completed insight word problems, which require substantially different representations for each problem. Higher WMC was again negatively associated with insight, but only after statistically controlling for shared variance between insight and incremental problem-solving accuracy. These findings suggest that WMC may benefit performance on fundamental processes common to both incremental and insight problem solving (e.g., initial problem representation), but hinder performance on the processes that are unique to insight (e.g., solution and restructuring). By considering the WMC of the individual, and the nature of the insight task, we may better understand the process of insight and how to best support it.

When the Hands Lead You Astray: The Effects of Gesture on Analogous Problem Solving

PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2013

How Mechanisms of Causality Influence the Use of Base Rates in Probability Estimates

PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2002