Usually, the more difficult the problem, the lower the confidence in the correctness of the solution ( Peterson and Pitz, 1988). On the surface, data on the Aha! experience research appears counterintuitive. Thus, research on the Aha! experience, its possible triggers, and its relationship with metacognitive judgments are relevant to the fundamental theory of thinking and creativity and applied research in pedagogy, marketing, and psychotherapy. Finally, the Aha! experience can be used as a heuristic in evaluating solution correctness ( Tikhomirov and Vinogradov, 1970 Laukkonen et al., 2018) and affects subsequent decision-making processes ( Valueva et al., 2016 Laukkonen et al., 2020). Secondly, the Aha! experience helps to maintain motivation in task performance ( Liljedahl, 2005 Oh et al., 2020 Skaar and Reber, 2021). ![]() First of all, the Aha! experience contributes to better memory for the studied material ( Auble et al., 1979) or insightful solutions ( Danek et al., 2013 Kizilirmak et al., 2016a Danek and Wiley, 2020). Some researchers have suggested that the Aha! experience per se has independent functions in problem-solving. ![]() Over the last decade, there has been an increasing interest in the study of the affective component of insight. The Aha! experience is a multidimensional phenomenon that includes a feeling of surprise, suddenness, positive affect, and certainty that the discovered solution is correct ( Jung-Beeman et al., 2004 Danek et al., 2014a Shen et al., 2016). The moment of identifying a solution is accompanied by an affective component: the Aha! experience. The cognitive component involves a sudden change in the problem representation or the rapid formation of a new concept, which often leads to a solution to the problem ( Kounios and Beeman, 2014). Researchers describe insight as a heterogeneous phenomenon that includes two components: cognitive and affective ( Gick and Lockhart, 1995 Danek et al., 2014a). For nearly a century, the phenomenon of insight has attracted the attention of scientists and provoked extensive research. Sometimes a solution to a problem suddenly pops into our mind. Thus, our study partially supports the processing fluency account and demonstrates the association between the Aha! experience and metacognitive judgments about the accuracy and difficulty of problems. We didn’t find the same effect for the Aha! after solution generation. When participants could not solve a problem but experienced the Aha! moment after the solution was presented to them, the problem was perceived as easier than one without the Aha! experience. As for the main hypothesis, we confirmed that the Aha! experience after the presentation of the solution was associated with a decrease in subjective difficulty. We also found a positive correlation between the Aha! experience and problem likability. As expected, the Aha! experience often accompanied correct solutions and correlated with confidence judgments. To test the proposed hypothesis, during the preliminary stage of the study, we developed a set of 100 remote associate problems in Russian (RAT-RUS) and asked 125 participants to solve problems and indicate the Aha! moment (after solution generation or solution presentation), confidence, difficulty, and likability of each problem. We also planned to confirm previously discovered associations between the Aha! experience and accuracy, confidence, and pleasure. We hypothesized that in a situation which the Aha! experience accompanies the solution in, the problem would be judged as less difficult, regardless of the objective difficulty. Based on the processing fluency account, the source of the Aha! experience is a sudden increase in processing fluency, associated with emerging of a solution. ![]() The exact nature of the Aha! experience remains unclear however, several explanations have been put forward. ![]() The insight phenomenon is thought to comprise two components: cognitive and affective (the Aha! experience). 3HSE Lyceum, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.2Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow, Russia.1The Department of Psychology, St Petersburg University, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
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