=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1419/paper0018
|storemode=property
|title=Humor as a Facilitator of Insight Problem Solving
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1419/paper0018.pdf
|volume=Vol-1419
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/eapcogsci/KorovkinN15
}}
==Humor as a Facilitator of Insight Problem Solving==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1419/paper0018.pdf
Humor as a Facilitator of Insight Problem Solving
Sergei Yu. Korovkin (korovkin_su@list.ru)
P.G. Demidov Yaroslavl State University, Department of Psychology,
Matrosova proezd 9, 150057 Yaroslavl, Russia.
Olga S. Nikiforova (weis1993@mail.ru)
P.G. Demidov Yaroslavl State University, Department of Psychology,
Matrosova proezd 9, 150057 Yaroslavl, Russia.
Abstract the instantaneous restructuring of representation, which is
Humor can improve a performance of creative necessary to understand a problem or a joke. The study of
problem solving; this phenomenon was repeatedly relations between humor comprehension and humor
demonstrated in various studies. However, production showed weak correlation (Kozbelt, Nishioka,
mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are still 2010). Participants’ appraisal of cartoon funniness is
unclear. We analyze the possible mechanisms of how negatively correlated with “latent content” cartoon
humor facilitates creative problem solving. The comprehension in humor comprehension tasks. This fact,
experiment demonstrates that preliminary humor according to the authors, supports an insight nature of
production facilitates insight problem solving. There
is no such an effect in noninsight problems. Humor humor comprehension. At the same time, results of the
and stress relief similarly facilitate visual insight humor production tasks show smaller support for insight
problem solving. We suggest that facilitation effect of nature of humor production. The instantaneity of problem
humor and stress relief is based on the attentional and joke grasp is associated with gestalt-principle of
mechanisms of defocusing. restructuring of representation. However, it was found
Keywords: insight, humor, problem solving, facilitation that the less time is given to comprehension and appraisal
of joke, the funnier the joke becomes. In other words,
Research problem funniness of the joke is negatively correlated with the
effort for its comprehension and explanation. However,
A few studies have shown that an affective influence
phenomenological instantaneity of insight apparently is
facilitates the creative problem solving and creativity
not associated with the speed of problem understanding.
(Isen, Daubman, Nowicki, 1987; O’Quin, Derks, 1997;
Insight requires long preparatory phase, which is referred
Ziv, 1976). The correlation between creative problems
to as an incubation of solution.
solving and humor is repeatedly confirmed (Gick,
Second, insight and humor are accompanied by positive
Lockhart, 1995; Korovkin, Nikiforova, 2014; Kozbelt,
emotions, which are connected with the understanding of
Nishioka, 2010; Martin, 2006). An understanding of
a problem or a joke. The positive emotion can persist even
humor, humor production, “sense of humor”, humor as a
after an experimenter told a right answer or explained a
heuristic for problem solving are analyzed in the context joke, when a solver was not able to understand a joke or a
of problem solving. A number of theoretical models problem. A special genre of creative (insight) problems,
consider a humor as a component of creative thinking
which has a common structure with a verbal joke, is funny
(Koestler, 1964; Mednick, 1962; Torrance, 1966).
riddles (Smullyan, 1978). A funny riddle has attributes of
Humor can not be unambiguously attributed to the a creative problem and a verbal joke in its structure. If the
affective or cognitive processes; hence definition and
problem cannot be solved independently, and an answer
operationalization of humor and its effects on solver are
will soon be told, this problem turns into a joke, because
strongly hindered. To understand the possible mechanisms
the solver perceives the problem or the answer as
of relationship between humor and problem solving
inappropriate and dishonest. Common experience of
process we should compare their psychological
humor comprehension and “aha-reaction” has similar
components. Processes underlying humor production and
components, such as unexpectedness and astonishment. In
understanding are similar to insight problem solving
both cases, an emotional state and emotions are positive.
process in many ways. The list of similarities include Insight problem solving can be presented as sudden
affective and cognitive processes, which, in our opinion,
restructuring of representation, frame shifting or script
are related to common nature of humor and insight.
switching.
A number of common features can demonstrate Third, problem solving and understanding of jokes are
structural and phenomenological similarity of insight and
based on the internal conflict or collision between at least
humor. First, an instantaneous understanding is the basis
two cognitive schemes. A text can be interpreted as a
of humor and insight (Kozbelt, Nishioka, 2010).
humorous, if two conditions are observed: 1) text is
Traditionally, both humor and insight are associated with
134
compatible and actualizes two different scripts; 2) these Cognitive mechanisms are associated with the
scripts are opposite (Attardo, Raskin, 1991; Raskin, actualization of contradictory scripts and ways of solving
1985). The scripts contradiction provides perception of the two scripts collision. These mechanisms may
the text as humor by three basic oppositions: 1) real - contribute to overcome the limitations in problem solving
unreal situation, 2) expected - abnormal, unexpected by variation of a set of heuristics and problem elements.
situation, and 3) possible - impossible situation. Verbal They can create presetting of remote associations
jokes consist of several components. The components or searching and contribute to “go beyond” in representation
knowledge resources can be presented as a hierarchy, of a problem. The impact of cognitive mechanisms can be
which defines variability of jokes. These knowledge content specific and content nonspecific.
resources are script opposition (SO), logical mechanism Affective (affective-regulatory) mechanisms of humor,
(LM), situation (SI), target (TA), narrative strategy (NS) in its turn, aim to reduce emotional strain in a situation of
and language (LA) (Ruch, Attardo, Raskin, 1993). problem solving, as well as contribute to increase the
Hypothetically, the components of logical mechanism and overall level of resources, which it related with the
situation are closely related to problem solving. Logical efficiency of problem solving.
mechanisms of jokes are a variety of logical errors, such In this experiment, we planned to reproduce the effect
as straightforward juxtapositions, false analogies, figure- of facilitation of insight problem solving by humor and to
ground reversals etc. Scripts of jokes, which are perceived answer a number of potential objections to this
as comic, often involve limited number of binary phenomenon. First, the standard research paradigm of
categories: real/unreal, true/false, good/bad, death/life, humor and affective facilitation studies involves the
obscene/decent, rich/poor, etc. According to Wyer and presentation of positively stained stimuli (such as video
Collins (1992), humor involves simultaneous activation of fragments). In this case, we observe a passive perception
two schemes of one situation. However, situation of humor and emotional reaction to a joke. Participants in
becomes comic and humorous if a new scheme, which positive mood respond more originally and creative; they
causes reinterpretation, is perceived as less serious and set remote associations and solve insight problems more
less informative. Moreover, the situation is perceived as sufficiently. In this study, we plan to test a reproducibility
more humorous when activation of the alternative scheme of the effect of facilitation provided by participant’s
requires more effort and time, i.e. more semantically humor production. Humor production can include
distant schemes are perceived as more comic. additional cognitive mechanisms of joke generation,
4. Humor and insight problem solving are likely to which can affect the problem solving in another way.
involve a violation of prohibitions. One of the possible Second, humor facilitates insight problem solving, but
mechanisms of thinking “outside the box” and functional its specificity for insight problem requires verification.
fixedness overcoming in insight problem solving is We need to compare how humor affects the insight and
relaxation of constraints in strategies and problem noninsight problem solving. In addition, humor can
representation (Knoblich et al., 1999; Öllinger, Jones, differently facilitate different types of representation
Knoblich, 2008). Verbal joke can be perceived as formats that can indicate different mechanisms of
humorous under the following conditions: 1) two facilitation. In this study, we decided to compare textual
contradictory ideas must be actualized; 2) the format (semantic processes) and visual format (perceptual
actualization should be carried out in a playful state in processes).
unserious and secure conditions (Apter, 1982), 3) content Third, the humor has a social nature, and insight can be
of jokes must be associated with prohibitions and a phenomenon of social interaction. The situation of the
restrictions (with threats, norms and taboos) (McGraw, experiment, which tests the participant’s ability to solve
Warren, 2010; Minsky, 1984). These necessary for humor creative problems, itself, can be a source of frustration,
conditions are also typical for insight problem solving in stress, and excessive motivation, which can reduce an
some sense. One of the hypothetical mechanisms of effectiveness of insight problem solving. Hence,
impasse in problem solving is constraint on the possible facilitation may be a consequence of stress relief in the
solution consideration, which can be overcome by situation of communication with an experimenter. We
constraint relaxation (Knoblich et al., 1999). The content have tried to include the variable of stress relief via a
of funny humor is close to the constraints, taboos and confidential conversation between the subject and the
experience of possible consequences. However, humorous experimenter. According to our idea, such a conversation
reaction to possible threat manifests of this threat become can reduce motivational and emotional stress in respect of
softened and located at the safe distance (McGraw, problem solving as well as a humor.
Warren, 2010). Both the content of jokes and frames
collision as insoluble logical paradox can cause a threat. Hypothesis
In this case, humor is an emotional form of thinking The hypotheses are:
process and logical problem solving cancellation (Minsky, 1. Humor production facilitates insight problem
1984). solving.
135
2. The effect of facilitation of insight problem solving is using the sentence completion test (examples: “Most of
a result of stress relief in the situation of interaction with all, I would like…”, “I hope that…”). Two experimental
an experimenter. conditions were equalized by using the same number of
3. Humor specifically facilitates insight problems of statements for the completion. In the control condition
various representation format. (neutral condition) participants did not receive stimuli for
emotional priming.
Participants Each group of participants received four problems to
The main study sample consists of 36 participants, aged solve. In each group, the emotional priming
17 to 45 years (М = 24.3, σ = 6.96). The study involved corresponding to the condition was presented before each
university and school students, people with secondary and problem solving. The duration of problems and priming
higher education. All participated on a voluntary basis, tasks performance was pre-equalized. The sequence of
without additional motivation. The preliminary study priming tasks and problems was randomly varied. Time of
sample consists of 10 participants, aged 20 to 22 years (М each problem solving is the efficiency parameter of the
= 20.8, σ = 0.79), to equalize the difficulty of problems. experimental exposure. Statistical analysis was performed
using ANOVA with repeated measures, Mann-Whitney U-
Procedure test, Wilcoxon T-test.
Before the experiment, a set of six problems was Results
established. According to results of the preliminary study
with 10 participants who did not participate in the main Participants solved the presented problems completely.
series, we selected four problems with equal time of According to the ANOVA with repeated measures, the
solution to control difficulty for the main series of the factor of problems type significantly affects the time of
experiment. We used two types of problems: insight and solution (F(1, 144) = 12.15, p < .001, ηp2 = .27). Humor
noninsight problems and two types of representation significantly facilitates insight problem solving. There are
format: textual and visual format. The textual insight significant differences in solution time between insight
problem: “Two men play five games of checkers. Each and noninsight problems in the stress relief condition
man wins the even number of games. There are no ties. (T(24) = 43, p <.01) and humor production (T(23) = 49, p
How is that possible?” The textual noninsight problem: <.01), whereas there are no such differences in neutral
“There are five bulbs: red, green, yellow, blue and gold. condition.
How many ways are there to decorate five trees if you
want each tree to wear only one bulb?” The visual insight
problem: “Remove three matches to get only three
triangles”. The visual noninsight problem: “Find the
perimeter of the given figure. The dimensions are 1 cm x
1 cm. Give an answer in square centimeters.”
Figure 1. Visual insight (a) and noninsight (b) Figure 2. The solution time (sec.) of insight and
problems. noninsight problems in experimental conditions. Vertical
Participants of the main series of the experiment were bars denote 0.95 confidence intervals.
divided into three groups: two experimental and one As a result of the one-way ANOVA with repeated
control conditions. In the first experimental condition measures, we did not found the effect of the type of
(humor production), participants performed a humor conditions in general (F(2, 144) = .15, p = .86, ηp2 =
priming tasks: humorous questions (example: “What .002). At the same time, a pairwise comparison of the time
bookworm does while fishing?”) and joke completion task of problem solving in various conditions shows that there
(example: “Holiday romance in Thailand…”). Participants are only significant differences between the condition of
had to complete jokes or answer the questions originally humor production and neutral condition (U(24) = 165, p =
and unusually. The second experimental condition (stress .012) in insight problem solving. The rest of the pairwise
relief) was designed to relieve participant’s stress during comparisons within insight and noninsight problems are
the communication with the experimenter. Stress relief not significant. Comparison of stress relief condition with
was carried out by means of a confidential conversation a neutral condition in insight problem solving also
136
showed no significant differences (U(24) = 212, p = .12). Discussion
This means that the stress relief is not enough for the
Thus, humor production can facilitate insight problem
effect of facilitation.
solving. There is no significant effect of humor
In addition to differences between insight and
production in noninsight problem solving. We found that
noninsight problems there are significant differences in
participants solve insight problems in humor production
problem solving of various representation formats (F(1,
condition significantly faster comparing to neutral
144) = 36.38, p < .001, ηp2 = .52). Visual problems are
condition. These findings are supported by a) the
solved quickly in general. The interactions between
aggregate data: humor production condition significantly
problem type and the type of representation was not found
different from the neutral condition without reference to
(F(1, 144) = .35, p = .56, ηp2 = .01).
types of representations; and b) visual format of
representation data: humor production condition
significantly different from the neutral condition in
solving of visual insight problems. That means that humor
specifically affects creative problems and this supports the
assumption about the relationship between humor and the
creative process. At the same time, we have not found the
facilitation effect in textual insight problem solving.
The most previous studies demonstrated that humor
comprehension facilitate insight problems. There was a
lack of information about how participant’s activity in the
humor production influences problem solving. We can
conclude that the production of humor can facilitate
insight problem solving as well as the humor
comprehension. Hypothetically, the mechanisms of
Figure 3. The solution time (sec.) of insight and facilitation by the humor production and the humor
noninsight problems in experimental conditions comprehension may be common or similar.
depending on the format of representation. Vertical bars We have received conflicting data on the role of stress
denote 0.95 confidence intervals. relief in insight problem solving. On the one hand, the
Interesting results were obtained in the analysis of the average data show that the stress relief is not sufficient to
interactions between problem type and the type of affect insight problem solving in general. It may be
interpreted as stress relief is an important component of
representation in each of the three conditions. In neutral
condition the effects of problem type (F(1, 48) = .9, humor that can contributes facilitation in a situation of
p = .36, ηp2 = .08), the type of representation (F(1, 48) = communication with an experimenter, but simple
3.79, p = .08, ηp2 = .26) are not significant, as well as relaxation is not enough to improve the efficiency of
interaction between factors is not observed (F(1, 48) =.2, problem solving. On the other hand, an independent
p = .66, ηp2 = .02). In the stress relief condition there is a review of the data of problem solving with the different
significant effect of problem type (F(1, 48) = 21.96, p < formats of representation demonstrates that stress relief as
.001, ηp2 = .67), and type of representation (F(1, 48) = well as humor similarly affects problem solving. Neither
31.82, p < .001, ηp2 = .78), however there is no interaction stress relief nor humor does not affect the textual insight
between these factors (F(1, 48) = .27, p = .61, ηp2 = .02). problem solving. However, both stress relief and humor
The type of representation significantly affects the significantly affect the visual insight problem solving. It
solution time in the condition of humor production (F(1, means that stress relief and humor affect insight problems
48) = 9.63, p < .01, ηp2 = .47). The value of the level of the same way. Relaxation (or stress relief under the
problem type influence is on the border of significance experimental conditions) can be an important component
(F(1, 48) = 4.76, p = .052, ηp2 = .3), the interaction of of the facilitation, particularly, of visual insight problems.
factors is also not observed (F(1, 48) = .63, p = .44, ηp2 = We found that humor specifically facilitates insight
.05). problems of the various formats of representation. Humor
Pairwise comparisons of each type of problems in significantly facilitates only visual insight problem
different conditions show that there is a significant shift in solving. There is no facilitation effect in the textual
visual insight problem solving compared to the neutral insight problem. As mentioned above, the stress relief
condition under the stress relief (U(24) = 27.5, p = .011) condition demonstrates the same pattern.
and humor production (U(24) = 36.5, p = .043). In all These results can be interpreted from the different
other cases, the solution time is not significantly different points of view. First, we assumed that humor as well as
from the neutral condition. stress relief facilitate problem solving via a changes in
social interaction between participant and experimenter.
Relaxation, the tension reducing, and the motivation
decreasing must affect insight problems in general.
137
However, we can see clearly that facilitation effect has defocusing of the visual representation of triangles
representational specificity, which is difficult to interpret presented to the participants. Nevertheless, the textual
solely by social interaction. insight problem used in the experiment do not have key
Second, we can use the working memory model to markers of representation in text that should be defocused.
understand how different representations of problems are This problem is based on the biases of mental models of
related with independent variables (humor production and the proposed situation. Thus, the insight problems used in
stress relief tasks). The problems’ formats of our research have different formats of representation and
representation used in the experiment are correlated with different structures.
the slave systems of working memory (Baddeley, Hitch, We can conclude that our experiment demonstrated
1974). It can be assumed that the visual problems are that humor production facilitates insight problem solving.
related to the visuospatial sketchpad, which is a storage of Humor and stress relief similarly affects insight problem
visual and spatial information in working memory. solving which allows us to assume the common or similar
Likewise, the textual problems are related to the nature of facilitation mechanisms. Humor specifically
phonological loop, which is a storage of auditory and facilitates visual insight problem solving. We suggest that
articulatory information. The experimental impact was facilitation effect of humor and stress relief is based on
performed in textual format (questions and a sentence the attentional mechanisms of defocusing. However, the
completion tasks). However, this model can predict specific facilitation of the representational format and the
inhibition effects of parallel processing of information in problem structure in insight problem solving requires
the same storage, but it is hard to explain facilitation further investigation.
effects via the storage specificity. Moreover, the generally
accepted data that decrease of central executive functions Acknowledgments
is associated with insight problem solving cannot shed This work is supported by Russian Foundation for
some light on the mechanisms of visual and textual Basic Research (grant 15-06-07899а) and President grant
specificity of the insight problems. MK-3877.2015.6.
Third, one of the possible interpretations of the
facilitation effect is arousal increase. Arousal can provide References
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