Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Conversion from an initial representation for gaining insight has mainly been studied in experimental settings wheresolution through that initial representation is impossible.Many studies of insight problem solving have shown that animplicit process engage in conversion from an inadequate initial representation. However, few studies exist about suchconversion in a situation in which solution by the initial representation is possible. A typical situation is conversionfrom a sub-optimal to an optimal solution. In such a situation, solution by the initial representation is inefficient, butpossible. Therefore, participants received no negative feedback that the solution is impossible.In this study, by measuringeye movement, we investigated the hypothesis that the implicit process also emerges in such a situation. We found that theimplicit process related to relaxation of fixedness on the sub-optional solution was observed prior to conscious finding ofthe optimal solution.