Insight learning: what it is, types and characteristics

Eureka, epiphany, turning on the light bulb... all of them are expressions that refer to the same phenomenon: insight learning.

This term refers to that situation in which, suddenly and without expecting it, we see the relationships between two things that, apparently, did not have it.

Insights have been fundamental in the development of science and humanity itself throughout its history, since great discoveries and inventions are not mere products of trial and error, but also of revelation sudden. Let's see it next.

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What is insight learning?

In psychology, insight learning is that phenomenon that occurs when we have a sudden understanding of a cause-effect relationship in a specific context. It is a new knowledge that is generated by introspection, that is, having certain knowledge in our memory that, suddenly, we see that they could be related and give us a new vision and understanding of reality.

Actually, an insight is a knowledge that arises in our mind by itself, from the relationship of two separate concepts, ideas and knowledge. It can also be the result of observing an everyday phenomenon from a new perspective or paying attention to something that, normally, we did not pay too much attention. Learning by insight

gives rise to the ideas behind popular expressions such as "light a light bulb", "eureka moment" and "have an epiphany".

The main psychological school that studied insight was Gestalt, although the first to investigate this type of learning was the psychologist and linguist Karl Bühler. According to Bühler, insight is one of the fundamental processes of learning and can be found in other species apart from ours, especially in higher primates as evidenced by studies carried out for Wolfgang Köhler.

In the human species this phenomenon has been responsible for much of the creativity, culture and technological and scientific development that differentiates us from other animals.

Types of insight

The idea of ​​insight learning has attracted much interest since it was first raised in the first half of the 20th century. Although it is not a closed classification, today it is considered that there are three main forms of this type of learning: model breakdown, contradiction and connection. We see them in more depth below.

1. Insight by model break

The human mind tends to categorize and interpret the world based on its past experiences. When we encounter any situation, we unconsciously search our memory for some memory, learning or experience that helps us to know how to overcome it, especially if we see in that situation some aspect that It is familiar.

The use of heuristics It is a fast and efficient way of processing known information, ideal for dealing with everyday problems, but what happens when the situation is completely new and unfamiliar? In this case, we keep looking for information in our memory to see if we have something that helps us to get out of the way, but here it does not work for us. Heuristics can make us ignore certain information or try to solve the new situation ineffectively.

In this case, the insight will occur when the person abandons their habitual thinking style. For new situations it is not useful to think and act in the same way as in everyday contexts. We need to think differently, and the use of heuristics is a negative thing since it can overlook information or cause us to try to resolve the new situation in an unreasonable way effective. It is necessary to break with the model, change your mindset.

It is this kind of insight that we can often see in word games, puzzles, riddles, and so on. brain teasers, as well as being the kind of insight behind creativity and the testing of new strategies.

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2. Contradiction

Another type of insight learning is that which occurs when we detect a contradiction in a family situation, a situation that until recently was totally normal and coherent to us. When we detect such a disagreement we begin to ask ourselves what other aspects could be wrong in a model, situation or knowledge that we have.

This implies take a critical view on the reality that, until that moment, we assumed to be true. It is true that you do not have to be wrong, but by looking for information that fails we can ask ourselves new questions and establish new opinions.

There can also be a change in our belief system when we see that what we believed in was not as true as we thought. We question whether our view of the world is correct and we look for new data.

3. Connection

Finally we find the most common type of insight learning: connection. As its name indicates, this is established from the connection between two or more knowledge in a sudden way, relating data that does not seem to be related to each other but that, by associating them, we obtain new knowledge.

We are able to apply what we have seen in a situation and transfer that information to a new problem that we did not know how to solve before.

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What are the benefits of learning by insight?

At this point we can understand the importance of insight learning. This type of learning based on revelations and epiphanies allows us to make discoveries that would not be available to us otherwise.

As we have commented, this type of learning has been fundamental for the history of humanity, since many new inventions, discoveries and ideas have arisen from “eureka moments”. Knowledge through insights makes us move forward suddenly, while trial and error is a more tedious and lengthy process.

But like everything good in life, insights have a problem: they are totally uncontrollable and sudden. In fact, as they arise spontaneously and without our assuming that it will happen to us, they are called epiphanies as if they were a religious revelation. We will never know when we will have one of these crucial moments to expand our knowledge and have new ideas.

However, and despite its uncontrollability, there are people who have a greater tendency to experience these phenomena. Insight learning is believed to be characteristic of people with a high intelligence and they would be related to lateral thinking, that is, the ability to observe situations from very different perspectives from how others see them.

This does not mean that there are people who are incapable of experiencing this type of learning. We are all capable of learning through insights, only that it is true that greater intelligence can increase the chances of living them. In addition, it is possible to train the ability to have insights by fostering a critical spirit, observing all details of the situation in which we find ourselves and ask all kinds of questions, even in situations that we believe know.