The influence of the extinction process on problem solving through insight

• Grant number: 18/04824-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2018
• End date: May 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Experimental Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Miriam Garcia Mijares
• Grantee: Rafael Silva Rodrigues
• Host Institution: Instituto de Psicologia (IP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

According to the Robert Epstein's Generativity Theory, the extinction is a necessary process for problem solving through insight to occur; however, there is no data to corroborate this proposal. The present project proposes an experiment with humans that intends to evaluate extinction function on previously trained responses in problem solving tasks. For this, 44 participants, allocated randomly in two groups (EXT, NOEXT), will solve a set of seven chamber or phases from the game Portal 2. After the basic training on the game command’s uses, will be presented six problems that need to be solved through the emission of two to four responses, controlled by specific discriminative stimulus present on the environments. The consequence of solving all the problems will be the portal opening that allows the participant to pass from one chamber to another, until the phase 7, the final test that has to be solved through insight. For the both groups will be presented the same stimulus, nevertheless the participants of the NOEXT group will have the possibility to escape the chamber through two ways: through independent emission of the four learned responses, or through the emission of a new response, resultant from the interconexion between the previously learned behavioral relations. The participants of the EXT group, on the other hand, can only get out of the chamber through the last way, and the previously learned responses will remain in extinction. The success parameters on the problem solving (yes, no), the solving time in seconds and the responses topography (sequence of responses) will be analyzed and discussed under the perspective proposed by Epstein and the literature about problem solving. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

RODRIGUES, RAFAEL SILVA; GARCIA-MIJARES, MIRIAM. o Fail or Not to Fail? Implications of Extinction on Creativity and Problem-Solving Behavio. PSYCHOLOGICAL RECORD, v. 71, n. 4, OCT 2021. (19/27401-1, 18/04824-1)