ERIC Number: EJ1163716
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Dec
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0278-7393
EISSN: N/A
Working Memory Facilitates Insight Instead of Hindering It: Comment on Decaro, Van Stockum, and Wieth (2016)
Chuderski, Adam; Jastrzebski, Jan
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, v43 n12 p1993-2004 Dec 2017
The "nothing-special" account of insight predicts positive correlations of insight problem solving and working memory capacity (WMC), whereas the "special-process" account expects no, or even negative, correlations. In the latter vein, DeCaro, Van Stockum Jr., and Wieth (2016) have recently reported weak negative WMC correlations with 2 constraint relaxation matchstick problems and 3 insight problems, and thus they claim that WM hinders insight. Here, we report on 3 studies that investigated WMC and various matchstick and classical problems (including 1 study that precisely replicated DeCaro et al.'s procedure). All 3 studies yielded moderate positive correlations of WMC with both the constraint relaxation and the classical problems. WMC explained 10% variance in problem solving, no matter what problems were used or how they were applied. Thus, DeCaro et al.'s claim that WM hinders insight is unwarranted. The opposite is true: WM facilitates insight. [This article is a commentary on "When Higher Working Memory Capacity Hinders Insight," EJ1086953.]
Descriptors: Short Term Memory, Intuition, Correlation, Problem Solving, Accuracy, Creative Thinking, Replication (Evaluation), Educational Experiments, Barriers, Prediction, Task Analysis, Cognitive Processes, Foreign Countries, Statistical Analysis, Factor Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Poland
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A