The ability to find creative solutions to difficult problems is a hallmark of intelligent behaviour in humans. New ideas often emerge as sudden insights, after a fundamental change in the way the problem is approached. Typically, problem solvers do not have full conscious access to this restructuring process, being unable to report their thinking steps or monitor their progress (Metcalfe & Wiebe, 1987). Instead, they are left with the impression that the solution appeared out of the blue (Stuyck et al., 2021). But they can report accompanying emotions, often of a positive nature – the so-called “Aha! experience” (Wiley & Danek, 2024). This talk discusses the question of whether metacognitive monitoring is possible in insight problem solving. This approach requires abandoning the notion of insight as a somewhat mysterious phenomenon and focusing on what can be monitored. I will review potential metacognitive judgements to assess insight problem solving and how accurate those judgements are. Further, I will discuss currently available methods to study a partly subconscious process such as restructuring of the problem representation.

Wiley, J., & Danek, A. H. (2024). Restructuring processes and Aha! experiences in insight problem solving. Nature Reviews Psychology, 3, 42–55.

Metcalfe, J., & Wiebe, D. (1987). Intuition in insight and noninsight problem solving. Memory & Cognition, 15, 238–246.

Stuyck, H., Aben, B., Cleeremans, A., & Van den Bussche, E. (2021). The Aha! moment: Is insight a different form of problem solving? Consciousness and Cognition, 90, 103055.