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Creative Insight: The Redistribution Theory 115

(a) Full insight

Insight state Goal state

(b) Partial insight

Insight state Goal state

Horizon of
mental look-ahead

(c) False insight

Insight state Dead-end
state

Figure 4.5. The relations among full, partial and false insight.

that the entire solution presented itself to consciousness is caused by the lack
of introspective access to the process of look-ahead. This hypothesis makes the
strong prediction that the subjective experience of suddenly seeing the entire
solution in the mind’s eye will accompany only those insights that occur when
the problem solver is close to the goal state. This is consistent with the fact that
the problems that are traditionally designated as insight problems have short
solutions.
Finally, it is possible that the insight event and its consequences create a
new search space that is as inappropriate or unproductive as the previous one.
Analytical problem solving in the new space has two possible outcomes: Either
the problem solver leaps to yet another search space, or the problem-solving
effort eventually fails. This is false insight. See Figure 4.5 for the relation between
full, partial and false insight.
It follows that insight events, especially full insights, are massively con-
tingent. They depend on the fine-grained details of the problem solver’s prior
knowledge. To predict whether a person will experience an insight if he tries to