Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada

The literature found in cognitive studies have shown a growing interest in two distinct types of information processing, referred to many investigators as system 1 and 2. The first corresponds to a more intuitive, affection-related, habit-influenced style of processing that is frequently associated with positive moods, whereas system 2 is referred to a more analytical and logical mode of processing, related to negative and neutral moods. In the current study, we observed the performance of a group of undergraduates (N=80) who had resolved a set of insight problems, the nine-dot variants, in which half of the participants were given training exercises as a positive feedback for promoting successful outcomes, while the remaining participants were not given any facilitating training. Furthermore, half of the participants were positively induced through mood-inducing films, while the second half watched negative inducing-films through the same means. Due to the fact that insight problem-solving is curiously difficult to work out for a number of reasons, this study looks to analyze if the processing style of positive participants promotes better outcomes in resolving insight problems in comparism with the negative participants. Therefore, the general objective sees to analyze and compare the performance between positive and negative groups, as well as investigate whether the training exercises were a key factor in promoting successful and insightful problem-solving. The results of this study do not reveal significant differences in the performance of the 4 groups. However, we consider that training is a key factor in promoting success.