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Problem Solving and Mental Incubation

The topic of problem solving concerns how people use memory, reasoning, judgment, and decision making to achieve established goals when the steps needed for doing so are not already obvious. As part of problem solving activities, spreading memory activation and mental incubation during intermediate rest periods may contribute to overcoming initial failures and blocked solution attempts.

For More Information:

• Seifert, C. M., Meyer, D. E., Davidson, N., Patalano, A. J., & Yaniv, I. (1995). Demystification of cognitive insight: The prepared-mind perspective. In R. J. Sternberg & J. Davidson (Eds.), The nature of insight. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press.
• Yaniv, I., & Meyer, D. E. (1987). Activation and metacognition of inaccessible stored information: Potential bases of incubation effects in problem solving. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 13, 187-205.
• Yaniv, I., Meyer, D. E., & Davidson, N. S. (1995). Dynamic memory processes in retrieving answers to questions: Recall failures, judgments of knowing, and acquisition of information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21, 1509-1521.

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http://www.umich.edu/~bcalab/problemsolving.html