MONITORING THE LOADING OF EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS WHILE INSIGHT PROBLEM SOLVING USING A SINGLE TONE PARADIGM

Abstract

Abandoning the strategy of consciously searching for a solution can be an insight mechanism. A number of studies have shown that control is important for both insightful and non-insightful tasks. From this it follows that the control has different functions. Insight occurs in several stages, at which the role of control is different. In the beginning, the task is solved as noninsightful and control is needed for intelligence. This continues until an impasse in the solution is reached. Next, intuitive processes come to the first role, and the role of control is decreasing. To study the dynamics of control, the subject performs a dual task, solving the main task (insightful or non-insightful, visual or verbal) and simultaneously reacting to sound stimuli (two levels of complexity of reactions). To study the role of control, we propose to use modally non-specific stimuli (sound signals) presented in the single tone paradigm. Twenty-five people took part in the study. No significant differences in dynamics were obtained. The probe-task was performed much more slowly from the middle stage of solving a non-insightful task to the end of the solution. The execution of the probe-task when solving the insightful task was uniform. A non-insightful task forces you to operate with voluminous intermediate data; this requires more resources of the central executor block.