Aha-I See! : Effects of Pictorially Cued Insight Across the Adult Lifespan

This study was an attempt to replicate and extend an experiment by Camp, Monroe, Markley, & Kramer (1982) dealing with the effects of the “aha” experience in people of different ages. The “aha” experience is defined as a state of noncomprehension followed by a state of comprehension. In order for an “aha” to occur, a sudden insight or inference must take place. The Camp et al. (1982) study demonstrated several things. In that study, older adults experience as many “ahas” and recalled as many aha-related sentences as younger adults. However, several procedural shortcomings were found. First, there was a need to have a measure of mental processing on a stimulus by stimulus basis. Secondly, a more direct measure of the level of understanding of experimental stimuli was needed. Camp et al. attempted to measure whether or not the sentence made sense to subjects. There was no measure of how well each sentence was understood. The present study represents an attempt to address these points. More importantly, the basic issues examined in the current research were whether older individuals are as able or willing to make and use inferences as compared with younger adults. Additionally, the effects of inference usage on later recall was examined