Insight Learning, What Does It Consist Of?

Insight learning defines those situations in which we suddenly find the solution to a certain problem. In this extraordinary process, previous knowledge, induction, deduction and those approaches based on trial and error are integrated in which at any given moment we have our own “eureka” moment, like Archimedes in his bathtub.

We all know about these experiences. Even more, whoever is dedicated to teaching or has helped others to solve something concrete will have seen that feeling in the other person. .. That of discovering something suddenly and realizing that this problem was much easier than previously thought. In the beginning.

This sudden, effective and useful understanding of a specific situation defines a highly valuable type of learning. After all, few things are more enriching than getting out of a crossroads successfully and easily, by ourselves and through perception.

What is insight learning?

When we talk about learning by insight, it is common to visualize a person with an illuminated light bulb in his head. It is an iconic way of representing that sudden spark that gives birth to a mental scenario where suddenly someone comes up with the solution. However, it is important to highlight one fact: that sudden understanding of a problem never comes out of nowhere.

Insight  learning theory was created by Gordon Bower, a cognitive psychologist who is an expert in human memory. Although the truth is that the Gestalt psychological school was more interested in this approach. Wolfgang Köhler, one of its founders, showed that primates also have their eureka moments .  

Now, this learning is not as automatic or magical as it seems, since it responds to a wide series of processes, such as previous experiences, introspection, imagination, connection, inference, etc. Nothing is left to chance. 

Sudden understanding, the “golden moment” of higher species

Suddenly, we see clearly that statistical problem or we know how to fix the computer problem. Is magic? Have we been blessed by the muses of mathematics or technology? Absolutely.

Sudden realization comes into our consciousness after the brain has consistently gone through a series of complex steps.

Insight learning takes place consciously, but also unconsciously. You can test your own theories by trial and error over and over and over again, but sometimes when you relax, solutions come to mind out of nowhere, like the apple that suddenly falls on Newton’s head.

We are faced with an active and creative learning that knows how to connect with previous experiences and with the information available to infer solutions. This approach is typical of the most open and receptive minds that observe, analyze, infer and let the subconscious itself work for itself as well.

The steps of insight learning

Insight learning is built through a series of highly dynamic and meaningful phases. They are as follows:

• Blocking phase. The person is face to face with that problem that he does not know how to solve.
• Restructuring. At this stage, an attempt is made to see this challenge from various perspectives. To do this, previous experience is accessed, the search for information, to break down that problem into smaller parts …
• Understanding of the problem. At this point, the person already knows what this challenge consists of, but they have several steps to take to face it and continue to insist on it.
• Discovery. At some point, the answer to that problem becomes conscious. The mind has been tying up the dots, relating some things to others, devising strategies, until suddenly it finds the key.

• Learning integration. In this last stage, the learning obtained is integrated into the long-term memory.

The types of insight you can experience

As we have pointed out, it was Gestalt psychology that has been most interested in learning by insight . Research works, such as those carried out at the University of Illinois, highlight that these types of psychological processes are the ones that most reorganize or restructure our mind and our knowledge.

Insight learning forces us to put into practice multiple perceptual, cognitive and even emotional processes. To understand it better, it is interesting to know the types of insight that we can experience.

• Insight by model break. It happens when we are forced to vary our previous knowledge for updated data that we have just discovered. Nothing is as important as detecting incorrect or irrational thought patterns to replace them with more truthful and useful ideas.
• Critical perspective. Insight learning also appears when we strive to apply a filter of skepticism to many of the things around us. The critical gaze always discovers or realizes things that others do not perceive.
• Connectivity This is undoubtedly another great cognitive resource that we should all apply. It is that in which to be skillful when it comes to finding relationships between things, seeing similarities, anchors, similarities and relating new information to our previous experiences.

To conclude, insight learning is one of the most valuable, useful and satisfying that human beings can experience. Let’s make use of it in our day to day.