Spontaneous access and analogical incubation effects

Incubation often plays a role in creative problem solving. Theories of analogical problem solving and Opportunistic Assimilation (OA) theory (Seifert, Meyer, Davidson, Patalano, & Yaniv, 1995) of incubation in creative problem solving were tested. OA theory predicts that a previously encoded unsolved problem will be spontaneously accessed and mapped by a later encounter with an analogous problem-with-solution. This study tested the OA predictions on insight problems and found spontaneous access effects for uninformed participants. Spontaneous access was compared to a baseline derived from the same participant's typical problem-solving behavior following distracter tasks. Following access of the analogous cue, participants increased their performance, demonstrating incubation effects. These results support the theory that at least some incubation effects are caused by previously unsolved problems being solved on later chance encounters with relevant information in the environment.