Incubation Provides Relief From Artificial Fixation In Problem Solving

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Creativity Research Journal
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Incubation Provides Relief from Artificial Fixation in
Problem Solving
a

Alan A. Penaloza & Dustin P. Calvillo

a

a

California State University San Marcos
Version of record first published: 16 Nov 2012.

To cite this article: Alan A. Penaloza & Dustin P. Calvillo (2012): Incubation Provides Relief from Artificial Fixation in Problem
Solving, Creativity ResearchJournal, 24:4, 338-344
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2012.730329

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CREATIVITY RESEARCH JOURNAL, 24(4), 338–344, 2012
Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1040-0419 print=1532-6934 online
DOI: 10.1080/10400419.2012.730329

Incubation Provides Relief from Artificial Fixation
in ProblemSolving
Alan A. Penaloza and Dustin P. Calvillo

Downloaded by [71.128.192.87] at 09:57 16 November 2012

California State University San Marcos

An incubation effect occurs when taking a break from a problem helps solvers arrive at
the correct solution more often than working on it continuously. The forgetting-fixation
account, a popular explanation of how incubation works, posits that abreak from a
problem allows the solver to forget the incorrect path to the solution and finally access
the correct path. This study tested the forgetting-fixation account using a trial-by-trial
method on a sample of 152 native English speakers who were asked to solve 12 remote
associate tests (RATs). During the first attempt, participants in the fixation condition
were presented with misleadingclues, and those in the no-fixation condition were not.
At the completion of the first attempt for each RAT, half of the fixation and half of
the no-fixation participants read an article for 2 min before attempting to solve the
RAT for the second time, but the other halves worked on each RAT continuously. As
predicted by the forgetting-fixation account, only in the fixation condition didparticipants who read an article perform better than those who worked on them continuously.
Moreover, fixated participants performed better than nonfixated participants, and this
differential effect was only evident in the incubation condition.

An incubation effect occurs when taking a break from a
problem produces better problem solving performance
than working on it continuously (Fulgosi & Guilford,1968). The period of distraction from a problem that
seemingly helps solvers arrive at the correct solution is
labeled the incubation period (Wallas, 1926). Support
for the incubation phenomenon has been inconsistent
across the literature, with some studies finding a strong
incubation effect (e.g., Smith & Blankenship, 1991,
Experiment 1) and others finding no effect (e.g., Olton
& Johnson,...