USING SUBJECTIVE REPORT RATING SCALES TO REVEAL BASIC PROCESSES UNDERLYING INSIGHT SOLUTIONS IN ANAGRAM TASKS

Abstract

The research attempted to evaluate the informativeness of subjective rating scales in order to reveal the processes underlying insightful solving of anagrams. Subjects divided into two groups solved anagrams evaluating their own solutions using rating scales of subjective characteristics taken from similar insight study (Danek et al., 2014): solution happiness, solution surprise, solution suddenness, solution certainty, and experience of an impasse. The subjects in the first group (the “Insight” group) solved regular anagrams. The second group (the “Implicit” group) solved anagrams based on a single pattern, which led to an implicit learning effect. It was expected that the values of the subjective rating scales would make it possible to separate insightful solutions of anagrams based on the realization of implicit knowledge from ordinary insightful solutions. The obtained results confirmed the validity of the assumption. The predictors of belonging to different groups were the scales of solution happiness, solution certainty and experience of an impasse. The study has demonstrated that it is possible to use subjective rating scales to separate insightful anagram solutions on the basis of processes that caused them. This indicates that such a subjective reporting technique is an informative method. The results of this study provide new possibilities for improving the self-reporting procedure in insight research.