When faced with a problem, do you tend to beat yourself up over it until you find a solution? I mean, sure, it might not be the best solution, but it’s serviceable, and that’s still better than putting the problem aside and coming back to it later.
Right?
Wrong. That’s simply not how our brains work.
At those moments when we can’t find a solution, we tend to induce what’s called forgetting-fixation. The name speaks for itself: when we go digging for answers, the mental material we displace in our search builds up into a wall that obscures our vision of what we’re looking for.
One of the most definitive experiments regarding forgetting-fixation was carried out in 1991 by Smith and Blankenship, the results of which are documented in Incubation and the Persistence of Fixation in Public Solving (paywall). The pair created Remote Associates Test (RAT) problems consisting of three words such as Apple – Family – House. The problem is solved when the subject finds a word that creates a phrase or compound with the three words. For instance, Tree creates Apple Tree – Family Tree – Tree House.
However, Smith and Blankenship wanted to know not how easy it would be for subjects to complete the puzzle, but what would make finding solutions more difficult. The researchers therefore started suggesting incorrect solutions as the experiments commenced. Subjects faired poorly; so fixated were they on the words Smith and Blankenship had spoken that they often proposed them as correct answers, knowing they weren’t.
Subjects were then allowed a second opportunity to complete the test. Half did so immediately, while half were permitted a 15 minute break, which the experiment referred to as incubation treatment. The first half recorded similar results on both occasions. The second half, on the other hand, proved significantly more able on the follow-up test. They’d had time to think about the problems, purge the incorrect answers from their mind, and return prepared.
When the experiment was attempted without inducing fixation, the group given incubation treatment failed to produce more right results.
Does that came as a surprise? Those fixated on solving the problem proved able – even if they initially failed – given time, but those not given a reason to care did not use the incubation treatment to its full potential.
The incubation effect has been trialled often in the quarter-century since Smith and Blankenship concluded that there was more to solving a significant challenge than perseverance, and the results have been the same in each case.
Trust in time, stay committed, and you will inevitably arrive at your destination.