Creative Abilities and Incubation: The Poincaré Effect

<p>Incubation is a period during which a subject temporarily makes no conscious attempts to solve a problem but eventually arrives at a solution. Henri Poincar&eacute; described cases where insights came after a break from working on complex mathematical problems. This article p...

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Main Authors: E.A. Valueva, D.V. Ushakov
Format: Article
Language:Russian
Published: Moscow State University of Psychology and Education 2024-12-01
Series:Экспериментальная психология
Online Access:https://psyjournals.ru/en/journals/exppsy/archive/2024_n4/Valueva_Ushakov
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author E.A. Valueva
D.V. Ushakov
author_facet E.A. Valueva
D.V. Ushakov
author_sort E.A. Valueva
collection DOAJ
description <p>Incubation is a period during which a subject temporarily makes no conscious attempts to solve a problem but eventually arrives at a solution. Henri Poincar&eacute; described cases where insights came after a break from working on complex mathematical problems. This article proposes a hypothesis called the &laquo;Poincar&eacute; effect&raquo;: the higher a person's creativity, the more pronounced the effect of incubation in their creative process. An experimental study was conducted with 525 participants divided into a control group (without incubation) and an experimental group (with an incubation break). Participants performed the &laquo;Alternate Uses&raquo; test, inventing non-standard ways to use a matchstick. Creativity was assessed based on fluency (the number of ideas) and originality. The results showed that the incubation break led to a significant increase in the fluency of responses in the experimental group. Moreover, among participants with a high level of creativity, incubation contributed to an increase in the originality of responses, confirming the Poincar&eacute; effect. These findings align with the awareness model, according to which incubation helps restructure the problem representation and recognize previously found unconscious solutions. The study's conclusions confirm the presence of the Poincar&eacute; effect in the phenomenon of incubation and highlight the importance of individual creative abilities in the problem-solving process.</p>
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institution Kabale University
issn 2072-7593
2311-7036
language Russian
publishDate 2024-12-01
publisher Moscow State University of Psychology and Education
record_format Article
series Экспериментальная психология
spelling doaj-art-b52b395413fa47f3bef21332c7f87e222025-01-16T12:30:31ZrusMoscow State University of Psychology and EducationЭкспериментальная психология2072-75932311-70362024-12-01174808910.17759/exppsy.2024170405Creative Abilities and Incubation: The Poincaré EffectE.A. Valueva0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3637-287XD.V. Ushakov1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9716-1545Institute of Psychology of RASInstitute of Psychology RAS (FGBI IP RAS) <p>Incubation is a period during which a subject temporarily makes no conscious attempts to solve a problem but eventually arrives at a solution. Henri Poincar&eacute; described cases where insights came after a break from working on complex mathematical problems. This article proposes a hypothesis called the &laquo;Poincar&eacute; effect&raquo;: the higher a person's creativity, the more pronounced the effect of incubation in their creative process. An experimental study was conducted with 525 participants divided into a control group (without incubation) and an experimental group (with an incubation break). Participants performed the &laquo;Alternate Uses&raquo; test, inventing non-standard ways to use a matchstick. Creativity was assessed based on fluency (the number of ideas) and originality. The results showed that the incubation break led to a significant increase in the fluency of responses in the experimental group. Moreover, among participants with a high level of creativity, incubation contributed to an increase in the originality of responses, confirming the Poincar&eacute; effect. These findings align with the awareness model, according to which incubation helps restructure the problem representation and recognize previously found unconscious solutions. The study's conclusions confirm the presence of the Poincar&eacute; effect in the phenomenon of incubation and highlight the importance of individual creative abilities in the problem-solving process.</p>https://psyjournals.ru/en/journals/exppsy/archive/2024_n4/Valueva_Ushakov
spellingShingle E.A. Valueva
D.V. Ushakov
Creative Abilities and Incubation: The Poincaré Effect
Экспериментальная психология
title Creative Abilities and Incubation: The Poincaré Effect
title_full Creative Abilities and Incubation: The Poincaré Effect
title_fullStr Creative Abilities and Incubation: The Poincaré Effect
title_full_unstemmed Creative Abilities and Incubation: The Poincaré Effect
title_short Creative Abilities and Incubation: The Poincaré Effect
title_sort creative abilities and incubation the poincare effect
url https://psyjournals.ru/en/journals/exppsy/archive/2024_n4/Valueva_Ushakov
work_keys_str_mv AT eavalueva creativeabilitiesandincubationthepoincareeffect
AT dvushakov creativeabilitiesandincubationthepoincareeffect