The Psychology of the Incubation Effect

In psychology research, there’s a powerful, but not often talked about phenomenon... called the Incubation Effect! This effect shows that taking a break from a problem, instead of continuously working on a problem, can actually lead to improved problem solving and insights down the road!

For researchers, considering and understanding this effect could have significant implications for experimental design. For example, researchers utilizing this effect can ultimately enhance participant performance and overall quality of problem solving.

Let’s go over what the Incubation Effect is, how it works, including its underlying cognitive functions, as well as discuss examples of how researchers can incorporate the Incubation Effect into psychology research.

What is the Incubation Effect?

The Incubation Effect refers to coming up with a creative solution or a way to solve a problem while not actively attending to it. A classic example of the Incubation Effect is reaching a standstill, deciding to take a break from your work by, let's say, taking a walk. Then while on that walk and not thinking a problem, suddently a solution pops up out of the blue! Typically, we think that solving difficult problems requires more effort, but the psychology behind the Incubation Effect shows that actually stepping away from the task at hand can actually lead to breakthroughs (Smith, S. M., 2011)!

The process behind the Incubation Effect is typically divided into the following three phases:

• Pre-incubation phase: This is when initial attempts to solve the problem at hand fail, and the person gets stuck or experiences some kind of “mental block.”
• Incubation phase: The person takes a break from the problem, either by doing a similar or different task or simply resting.
• Post-incubation phase: After the break, the person returns to the problem and tries to solve it again (Talandron-Felipe et al., 2021). For example, if one can't solve a math problem at first (pre-incubation), they can take a break and do other non-related things (incubation). Later, upon returning to the original problem (post-incubation), the problem may be easier to solve because they have a 'fresh pair of eyes'.

Incubation Effect Examples in Daily Life

The Incubation Effect is actually something we naturally experience in our everyday lives . Next time you take part in the following, know that the incubation effect is probably doing its thing behind the scenes:

• Mind-wandering (Short Incubation Period): Mind-wandering occurs when a person’s thoughts drift away from the task at hand and behind to 'wander' about topics unrelated to the immediate task. Mind-wandering is actually studied a lot in psychology examples of how it is referred to in the literature: daydreaming, spontaneous thought, task-unrelated thought, and stimulus-independent thought (Ritter, et al., 2014). For example, when someone is washing dishes or commuting, their mind might wander to past experiences or new ideas, sometimes sparking unexpected insights about problems they experienced earlier in the day or in the week.
• Sleep (Longer Incubation Period): Sleep is actually also studied for its effect on learning and performance - which is essentially the incubation effect at work! Sleep, particularly the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage, is crucial for aiding cognitive functions like memory consolidation and creative thinking. It is a commonly known fact that during sleep, the brain organizes and processes information from the day, helping with memory recall and comprehension (Cai, et al., 2009). For instance, a student studying before bed may experienced improved recall of the material after a full night's rest. Sleep also aids in creative problem-solving, as many people experience "a-ha" moments upon waking. The chemist August Kekulé famously dreamed of a snake biting its own tail, which inspired his formulation of the structure of benzene (Rocke, 2014).

Cognitive Functions Associated with the Incubation Effect

There are several cognitive functions at play that can explain the psychology and workings behind the Incubation Effect. Here are a few:

• Mind wandering: As mentioned previously, this cognitive process allows individuals to detach from specific tasks, leading to a form of cognitive exploration that encourages the development of remote associations and connections (Huang et al., 2024).
• Forgetting incorrect solutions: The “forgetting-fixation account” suggests that taking a break from a problem helps individuals forget previous unsuccessful approaches, allowing them to access the correct solution path more effectively (Penaloza, et al., 2012).
• Restructuring problem representations: This involves reorganizing one’s mental representation of a problem into a more productive format. This helps stumble to a solution by reshaping the available information (Henok et al., 2018).
• Subconscious processing: Perhaps this is kind of like the common ground of the processes discussed up to this point. By setting creative problems aside, this provides the opportunity for subconscious processes to work on generating plausible solutions, leading to spontaneous breakthroughs aided by placing attention elsewhere (Gilhooly, K. J., 2016; Talandron-Felipe et al., 2021).

Applying the Incubation Effect in Psychology and Research

By involving incubation breaks in research researchers can improve participants' problem-solving, boost creativity, and better understand how subconscious processing leads to new insights. Designing experiments to understand the Incubation Effect involves allowing structured tasks where participants engage with a problem, take a break, and then return to the task.

Various tasks have already utilized the effect in their studies, such as:

• Classical riddles: In the study, participants were divided into groups that either had an incubation period of 4.5 hours, spent awake or asleep, between the initial phase and retest, or had no incubation period and proceeded directly to the retest. The results indicated that participants who experienced an incubation period, regardless of whether it was spent awake or asleep, had higher solution rates for the riddles compared to those who did not have an incubation period at all (Brodt, et al., 2018).
• Cheap necklace problem: The Cheap Necklace Problem (CNP) is an problem-solving task where participants are asked to connect chains with a maximum cost of 15¢ while keeping in mind the costs of specific compones, for example each opening link costs 2¢ and closing link costs 3¢. The incubation effect was utilized by providing the participants a 2-week break after working on the CNP, before attempting the task again. Results showed that upon the reattempting it 2 weeks later, the participants in the high-interactivity condition (where they could physically manipulate the chains) demonstrated significant improvements compared to those in a low-interactivity condition (Henok et al., 2018).
• Remote associate tests (RATs): The Incubation Effect was utilized by having participants solve Remote Associate Tests (RATs) in two attempts. After the first attempt, participants in the incubation condition took a 2-minute break to read an article, while those in the non-incubation condition continued working on the RATs without a break. The findings showed that participants who experienced an incubation period performed better on the RATs during their second attempt compared to those who did not have a break (Penaloza, et al., 2012).

Conclusion

The Incubation Effect is a powerful tool that researchers can harness to examine creativity and problem-solving processes in their experiments. Understanding the Incubation Effect is particularly relevant in today’s fast-paced work and academic environments, where continuous work is often prioritized over breaks. Whether it's breaking up complex tasks or studying the effect of incubation on participants, this cognitive phenomenon offers a new dimension to research and experiment design.