The Effectiveness of Metacognitive Hints in Insight Problem Solving

One of the difficulties in research of insight problem solving is that insight solutions are hard to control consciously. Moreover, participants cannot verbally report about problem solving [14] or evaluate their progress to the answer [11]. In this study we assumed that metacognitive hints could enhance an insight solution effectiveness. The hints may be helpful to participants’ progress monitoring, understanding of contradictions and conflicts in insight problems. To test this hypothesis, we conducted the experiment where participants had to solve the Five-Square problem under one of two conditions: a) control – experimenter periodically gave supportive statements to participants (for example, “You will succeed”, “You can do it”); b) experimental – experimenter periodically gave metacognitive hints to participants (for example, “What prevents you from solving the problem?”, “What else can you use?”). We compared the number of solvers who successfully solved the problem within 15 min in each group. As a result, we found that the insight problem is more likely to be solved in the condition with metacognitive hints than in the condition with supportive statements. The result indicates that an incentive to conflict analysis plays a greater role in insight problem solving compared to the motivation to solve.