Is Insight Odd?

Insight can be described as "the aha-moment" someone has when he or she suddenly arrives at a solution to a problem. This is different from analytical thinking, which, according to Dr. Carola Salvi, is a step-by-step way of solving a problem. Insight thinkers tend to be more creative, and in the article "The Unleashed Mind," Shelly Carson discusses the science behind why highly creative people are often seen as weird by others.

Dr. Salvi found through her research that solutions that came about through insight thinking are more accurate than solutions via analytical thinking; specifically, 92% of insight solutions were correct. Insight need not take place when the problem is being explicitly thought about it can occur during deliberation or afterwards. Expertise, motivation, and creative thinking are all tied to this concept of insight. In fact, throughout literature on insight, insight and creativity are often used almost synonymously.

In "The Cognitive Neuroscience of Insight," John Kounios and Mark Beeman discuss the neural basis of insight. The right hemisphere tends to contribute to insight-based problem solving, while the left hemisphere contributes more to analytical problem solving. In this sense, more insightful individuals are not only deemed more creative, but they also have a more active right hemisphere at resting state.  Furthermore, Carson, Salvi, Kounios, and Beeman all discuss how alpha waves are also more common in creative thinkers that rely on insight. Kounios and Beeman further this research by discovering that gamma waves come as a burst after periods of alpha waves. They suggest that alpha waves are related to inward, unconscious thinking, while the gamma wave bursts are associated with conscious thoughts. This coincides with modern science, as alpha waves are known for relaxed, daydreaming, and meditative states, while gamma waves are known to be for conscious learning and awareness.

            Interestingly, the crux of Carson’s article is explaining why highly creative individuals are considered “weird.” She connects creativity with many studies on both creativity and insight. More importantly, however, she drives the connection between creativity and schizotypal personalities. Schizotypal personalities do not necessarily fall under a personality disorder; they can be high-functioning, highly intelligent, and creative individuals. She parallels this personality to the likes of Isaac Newton, Ludwig van Beethoven, Nikola Tesla, and Emily Dickenson, among others.

            Previous and current research show that those who score higher on traits of schizotypal personalities also score higher on creativity than others, and vice versa. One of the main mechanisms Carson believes this occurs through is cognitive disinhibition, which is when someone is unable to filter out unimportant information. Carson also believes that “cognitive disinhibition is also likely at the heart of what we think of as the “aha!” experience,” which is also known as insight. Research Carson conducted at Harvard University and the University of Toronto, as well as other research, confirms that those who experience more cognitive disinhibition are also highly creative. She also ties this to other studies on the neural basis of insight and creativity, which shows that more creative individuals experience more alpha waves, which was also seen in Salvi, Kounios, Beeman’s works. This ties with Salvi’s discussion on how insight often occurs when the problem is not even at the forefront of someone’s mind and can instead occur randomly. It also brings to mind the fact that schizotypal personalities are often in relaxed and day-dream-like states, which ties in to the fact that insightful and creative people experience more alpha waves at a resting state.

            Carson describes that it is not simply that those of a schizotypal personality are highly creative. Rather, it is the combination of cognitive disinhibition and a higher IQ level that leads to higher creativity levels. She defines this in the shared vulnerability model, which shows why it is often that individuals who are innovative and creative also tend to be eccentric. Interestingly, Salvi’s research showed how problem solving through insight is correct 92% of the time; this highlights a correlation between insight and intelligence.

            Overall, putting these studies together presents a unique view on what insight really is: it can be a factor contributing to high creativity as well as eccentricity. Furthermore, even though Salvi, Kounios, and Beeman, all did not differentiate much between insight and creativity, Carson’s work shows the slightest separation between the terms. It can thus be concluded that “The Cognitive Neuroscience of Insight” describes insight itself, while “The Unleashed Mind” characterizes insightful people. 

References:

Carson, Shelley. “The Unleashed Mind.” Scientific American, 1 Mar. 2017, www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-unleashed-mind1/.

Kounios, John, and Mark Beeman. “The Cognitive Neuroscience of Insight.” Annual Review of Psychology, vol. 65, no. 1, 2014, pp. 71–93., doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115154

Salvi, Carola. Loyola University Chicago Neuroscience Seminar. 12 Feb. 2019, Chicago, Loyola University Chicago.