An Expanding View on Incubation

Abstract

This article presents a review and integration of the literature on incubation. The review indicates that (a) the experimental investigation of incubation tends to focus on the observation and measurement of cognitive-mental processes; (b) the current research on incubation only infrequently considers the phenomenon of variance in psychological states during the incubation phase in solving interpolation problems and solving dialectic problems; and (c) sensory-perceptual phenomena, such as symbol formation, occurring during incubation, are too rarely considered. The review also identifies a need for the development of methodologies that consider the range of cognitive-mental and sensory-perceptual processes involved in the development of novel understanding and original discovery.

This article draws from the dissertation, “Heuristic and Semiotic Study of Incubation Through Art Based Inquiry” (Orlet, 2006). I am grateful to my dissertation committee Steve Pritzker, Arne Collen, and Ruth Richards for their guidance and encouragement.