bioRxiv Preprint Server
June 2, 2026
Ambra Pogliani, Alexandra Zachary, Lena Hall et al.
preprint
Insight is commonly studied in laboratory paradigms as a sudden shift in understanding accompanied by characteristic “Aha!” experiences. However, such paradigms may not capture the full phenomenological range of insight as it occurs in naturalistic contexts. This study compared the phenomenology of insight across four contexts—psychedelic experiences, everyday-life insights, Compound Remote...
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
October 1, 2023
Ruben Laukkonen, Margaret Webb, Carola Salvi et al.
Perhaps it is no accident that insight moments accompany some of humanity's most important discoveries in science, medicine, and art. Here we propose that feelings of insight play a central role in (heuristically) selecting an idea from the stream of consciousness by capturing attention and eliciting a sense of intuitive confidence permitting fast action under uncertainty. The mechanisms...
Consciousness and Cognition
September 1, 2022
Hilary J Grimmer, Ruben Laukkonen, Anna Freydenzon et al.
6 citations
The FIAT paradigm (Grimmer et al., 2021) is a novel method of eliciting 'Aha' moments for incorrect solutions to anagrams in the laboratory, i.e. false insights. There exist many documented reports of psychotic symptoms accompanying strong feelings of 'Aha!' (Feyaerts, Henriksen, Vanheule, Myin-Germeys, & Sass, 2021; Mishara, 2010; Tulver, Kaup, Laukkonen, & Aru, 2021), suggesting that the...
Cognition & Emotion
August 1, 2021
Ruben Laukkonen, Daniel J Ingledew, Hilary J Grimmer et al.
Insight experiences are sudden, persuasive, and can accompany valuable new ideas in science and art. In this preregistered experiment, we aim to validate a novel visceral and continuous measure of insight problem solving and to test whether real-time and embodied feelings of insight can predict correct solutions. We report several findings. Consistent with recent work, we find a strong positive...