Gilhooly (2022)

Question 1

Paper’s aim

Answer 1

Explores possible connections between incubation and serendipity

Question 2

Problem

Answer 2

A situation in which a person has a goal but does not know how to reach that goal, and so search becomes necessary to find a solution. They have three elements: a starting state, a goal state, and a set of possible actions or means to move from the starting state to the goal state

Question 3

Creative problems

Answer 3

Require the production of new approaches and many possible new solutions before an acceptable solution is found

Question 4

Incubation period

Answer 4

Refers to a period of time in which one stops conscious work son problems such as creative and insight problem solving. This can help in the production of novel solutions. It often follows an impasse in which the person cannot generate new ways of searching or re-structuring

Question 5

Waking incubation

Answer 5

Can be divided into “distraction” and “relaxation”/”daydreaming”/”mind-wandering”

Question 6

“Distraction”

Answer 6

Episodes in which the main problem is set aside while other tasks are consciously addressed

Question 7

“Relaxation”/”Daydreaming”/”Mind-wandering”

Answer 7

Episode in which no particular task is focused on

Question 8

“Inspiration”

Answer 8

Solution ideas might come to mind spontaneously while not focusing on the problem

Question 9

“Facilitation”

Answer 9

Solutions may occur very quickly when the previously unsolved problem is returned to and attended to again

Question 10

Delayed incubation

Answer 10

Where the target problem was worked on consciously for a period (preparation) and then set aside (incubation), often following an impasse. Typical situation in personal accounts

Question 11

Immediate incubation

Answer 11

The target task is set aside immediately after it is introduced and then returned to after a distraction period

Question 12

Intermittent Conscious Work

Answer 12

The “sceptial” view. Participants go against their instructions and return consciously to the target task during the incubation period and so gain extra time on the main task

Question 13

Fresh Start

Answer 13

The passive process of forgetting or decay of misleading sets during the incubation period, allow a fresh start when the task is resumed after the break

Question 14

Unconscious Task Related Processing

Answer 14

E.g. spreading activation, changes the person’s representation of the task and possibly generates useful connections and associations. Such processing may lead to inspiration interrupting the conscious flow of thought. Alternatively, unconscious processing during incubation may help on resumption of the task

Question 15

“Sleep”

Answer 15

Covers a complex mix of states and stages that may differ in their effects on problem solving

Question 16

Hypnagogic stage

Answer 16

Moving from wakefulness to sleep

Question 17

Hypnopompic stage

Answer 17

Reflects moving from sleep to wakefulness

Question 18

Sleep incubation

Answer 18

May complement waking incubation by producing more unusual possibilities

Question 19

“Walpolian” serendipity

Answer 19

Said to involve discovery of things that were not being looked for by “accidents and sagacity.” Accident or chance generates events but “sagacity” or “knowledge” is needed to recognise the interest value of the chance event. Does not involve a pre-set goal and thus cannot involve incubation which requires a goal

Question 20

“Mertonian” serendipity

Answer 20

An important form of serendipity which arises when the serendipitous individual does have a goal being looked for, and solution or discovery is aided by an accidental event
It is relevant to incubation as incubation involves a goal but one that has been set aside

Question 21

Serendiptious event

Answer 21

Does not need to be consciously noticed although it must receive some degree of attention, even if unconscious, in order to affect processing of the problem

Question 22

Opportunistic-Assimilation model

Answer 22

Could account for effects of accidental events during incubation. When a problem is set aside because it has not been solved or impasse is reached, a persisting “failure index” is set in long-term memory

Question 23

“Failure index”

Answer 23

Describes the type of information needed to solve the problem. If this information is encountered in the environment during the incubation period, the solution may be activating and a solution may be found as relevant information has become active in long-term memory

Question 24

External inputs

Answer 24

Relevant to outstanding unsolved problems aid incubation, as predicted by Opportunistic Assimilation, when the relevant “failure indices” had been set

Question 25

Zeigarnik effect

Answer 25

Also shows the persistence of activation of “failure indices” or unachieved goals. Recall of unfinished interrupted tasks is higher than that for the completed tasks. Consistent with the Opportunistic Assimilation approach

Question 26

Goal + Associative Network Interaction (GANI) model of incubation

Answer 26

Proposes a mechanisms for automatic inspiration by positive feedback loops of mutual activation between the initially subliminally activated goal and possible solution representations

Question 27

Endogenous mental event

Answer 27

Can occur in the form of an unusual association of ideas, without a direct or obvious link to any external input. Could result from unconscious processes of spreading activation while one is awake, during sleep, while dreaming, or following sleep

Question 28

Spreading activation

Answer 28

Below conscious threshold level until the final stages can lead to implicit effects and theoretically to insight solutions occurring through incubation

Question 29

Knowledge

Answer 29

Represented in associative networks over which activation can flow

Question 30

Long-term knowledge

Answer 30

Represented by a particular form of associative or semantic network, known as a small-world network

Question 31

Ideas/concepts

Answer 31

Linked in clusters of tightly related ideas and links between clusters provide shortcut routes whereby apparently unrelated concepts can be reached from one another in a few steps along the network links between clusters

Question 32

Creative individuals

Answer 32

Tend to have “flat” associative hierarchies and so perform better on divergent tasks

Question 33

"Flat" hierarchies

Answer 33

Present when the alternative associations to most items are about equal in strength

Question 34

"Steep" hierarchies

Answer 34

Typically involve one very strong association and a few weak associations for each item

Question 35

Forward flow measure

Answer 35

Assessed conscious (continuous) free association. Those higher in the forward flow measure scored higher on creativity tasks

Question 36

Consciousness

Answer 36

Reflects the most activated nodes in the semantic network and the sequence of the most active nodes is experienced as the stream of consciousness