OSU researchers gain insight on epiphanies

Light-bulb moments feel as if they happen in a flash, but new research suggests they’re the final, dazzling product of a more-subtle subconscious process.

In a new study, Ohio State University researchers found that they could tell when someone was approaching an epiphany before that person even knew it was coming.

“We see it in their eyes,” said Ian Krajbich, the study’s co-author and an assistant professor of psychology and economics at Ohio State. “Once it dawns on them, all of a sudden things shift.”

Neuro-economists such as Krajbich try to unwind how the brain makes economic decisions about everything from gambling to charity donations to brand loyalty. Most of that research is based on the idea that people learn step-by-step and adjust their behavior gradually until they reach a solution, he said.

But a growing number of scientists are exploring insight — when an answer is reached in a sudden, emotional burst.

In the OSU experiment, students played 30 rounds of a computer strategy game in which they were asked to pick a number between 0 and 10 each round. An unseen opponent did the same.

A camera tracked eye movement and pupil dilation, allowing researchers to tell what was happening as the students considered which number to select at each turn.

Winning a round earned the victor a small payment. The participants also were offered a cash bonus for doubling down and committing to a single number for the remaining rounds.

What about 40 percent of the subjects realized was that there was a strategy that guaranteed victory: pick 0 and stick with it. Researchers found that the students did not come to that conclusion through a trialand-error method.

“Instead we see them all of a sudden have a realization,” Krajbich said.

Leading up to these “Eureka!” moments, he said, students’ attention started to focus in on 0. Then something clicked. At that point, their eyes darted to the “commit” button.

The other participants — those who either locked onto another number or never committed to one — spent more time looking at whether they won or lost than strategically analyzing their opponent’s choice.

Krajbich said that suggests that imitating someone else’s strategy is a poor way to make decisions. For example, when you buy insurance, choose a retirement plan or order off of an unfamiliar restaurant menu, it’s worth spending time weighing options versus going with what’s most popular, he said.

“It pays to think hard and try to solve a problem ... as opposed to looking at what other people are doing,” he said.

Carola Salvi, a researcher at Northwestern University’s Creative Brain Lab and at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, also has documented the relationship between eye movements and insight problem-solving.

Her research has shown that sudden insights are predicted by an increased eye-blink rate. She also has found that those powerful bursts are more likely to come when the mind shuts out distractions and turns attention inward, like when we close our eyes, stare at a blank wall, gaze out of a window or are on the verge of falling asleep.

When involved in insight learning, the brain combs a vast network of information. Eventually, when enough evidence gathers for an idea or solution, it punches through into consciousness — giving us the feeling of a sudden epiphany.

Salvi’s work suggests that when we zone out and turn inward, the brain is more capable of Eureka! moments, which tend to produce the most-creative, high-quality ideas, she said.

But there’s still a lot researchers don’t know about insight learning as a decision-making process. And as the Ohio State study showed, there’s no way to guarantee a correct epiphany.

“Insights are impossible to tame: They just come or don’t come,” Salvi said. “That feels almost magical.”