• DOI:10.2307/1422851
Corpus ID: 10359632

Incubation and the persistence of fixation in problem solving.

@article{Smith1991IncubationAT,
  title={Incubation and the persistence of fixation in problem solving.},
  author={Steven M. Smith and Strader Eric Blankenship},
  journal={The American journal of psychology},
  year={1991},
  volume={104 1},
  pages={
          61-87
        }
}

Steven M. Smith, Strader Eric Blankenship

Published in

The American journal of…

1991

Psychology, Medicine

Extra work on unsolved problems may lead to more improvement if the new work is delayed rather than undertaken immediately after initial solution attempts. Such a result constitutes incubation in problem solving. "Unconscious work" on a problem, commonly assumed to be responsible for incubation effects, may not be necessary to observe the phenomenon. We hypothesize that fixation, a block to successful problem solving, may develop during initial solution attempts and persist, interfering with… CONTINUE READING

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