Problem Solving and the Brain. Compound Remote Associate Problems.

1. Problem Solving and the Brain

2. Behavioral Studies of Insight
• Metcalfe’s experiment (from earlier).
– Ss. studied insight problems (e.g. algebra) as
well as non-insight problems
– At 15 seconds intervals, ss. rated how close
they felt to solving the problem
– Only for insight problems, ss. suddenly
increased warmness ratings before solving
problem
• Perhaps insight is special? But how do we really
know what really happens during insight?

3. Promise of Brain Imaging Studies
• Difficult to link behavioral data to internal
processes -- e.g., do warmness ratings really
show that insight occurs rapidly?
• With brain imaging techniques, we can get
converging evidence for a special insight
process. Does insight occur suddenly, in the
brain, as behavioral data suggests?
• Jung-Beeman et al. (2004). Studied neural
correlates of “aha” moment using fMRI and EEG

4. Jung-Beeman et al.
• Compound Remote Associate Problems
Example: pine, crab, sauce
Question: what word can form a familiar
compound word or phrase with the each of these
words?
Solution: apple
(pineapple, crabapple, applesauce)

5. Example Problems
% correct
responses
within 15
Problem: seconds Answer:
1 high/district/house 55% ?
2 pike/coat/signal 33% ?
3 office/mail/hat 32% ?
4 fly/clip/wall 32% ?
5 wise/work/tower 13% ?
6 baby/spring/cap 13% ?
7 break/bean/cake 12% ?
8 land/hand/house 3% ?

6. fMRI
• Functional Magnetic
Resonance Imaging
• Measures cerebral blood
flow (related to neural
activity) in different areas
• Results are usually based
on the difference in
response between
experimental and
baseline condition
MRI scan

7. Experimental Setup
Ss. press button Ss. press button
when they solved when they felt
a problem insight during
problem solving
Measure brain
response here

8. Areas showing greater fMRI signal for
insight than non-insight solutions
increased activity in the right hemisphere anterior Superior Temporal Gyrus

9. EEG / ERP
• EEG: Electroencephalography
• Electrodes placed at the scalp;
measuring changes in voltage
• High temporal resolution, poor
spatial resolution – good to measure
when processes are initiated as
opposed to where

10. Example of EEG

11. EEG Results
Measure high
frequency
oscillations in
gamma band (>
30Hz)
For insight problems
that were correctly
solved, a burst of
gamma frequencies
0.3 seconds were
observed before the
solution response

12. EEG Results
Animation of the last half second (from -0.5 to -0.2) of high-
frequency electrical activity at the scalp prior to the button
press indicating subjects had solved a problem with insight.
from: http://www.psych.nwu.edu/~mjungbee/PLoS_Supp.htm

13. Brain Studies of Moral Reasoning

14. The Trolley Dilemma
• A trolley is running out of control down a
track. In its path are 5 people who have
been tied to the track by a mad person.
Fortunately, you can flip a switch which
will lead the trolley down a different
track. Unfortunately, there is a single
person tied to that track. Should you flip
the switch? If you do nothing, the trolley
will kill five, but if you intervene it will kill
only one. Should you “kill one person”
to save five?
SWITCH

15. What justifies your judgment ?
• “Save as many as you can.”
• “The good of the many outweighs the good of
the few.”
• “Act so that you provide the maximum benefit to
the maximum number of people.”

16. The footbridge dilemma
• similar to trolley dilemma
• A runaway trolley threatens to kill five people.
You are standing on a footbridge over the tracks,
next to a large stranger. If you push the stranger
onto the tracks, killing him, his body will prevent
the train from reaching the others, saving them.
Do you push?

17. • Most people answer yes to the trolley question,
no to the footbridge question
• Perhaps what’s wrong with killing the large man
to save five is that it would be using the one as a
mere means for the benefit of others

18. Variant of trolley dilemma
As before, a trolley is hurtling
down a track towards five
people. As in the first case, you
can divert it onto a separate
track. On this track is a single
large man. Without the body of
this man, the trolley would, if
turned that way, make its way to
the other track and kill the five
people.
If it wasn't for the presence of the
large man, flipping the switch
would not save the five. Should
you flip the switch?
SWITCH

19. The Surgeon’s Dilemma
You are a surgeon with six patients. Five of
them need major organ transplants, which you
could easily do if you had access to transplant
organs. The sixth, an ideal donor for all the
relevant organs, has a cold. Should you kill one
person to save five?

20. • Philosophers have puzzled over why people
believe it is morally acceptable to sacrifice one
life for five in one case, but unacceptable in the
other
• Difficult to find a unifying set of principles that
explains what is morally acceptable

21. The psychology of moral reasoning
• Prescriptive question: what is right and wrong?
 Philosophy/Ethics
• Descriptive question: what are happens during moral
reasoning?  psychology
– Traditional view (e.g. Kant): moral judgment is primarily
a matter of formal reasoning.
– Recent insights (Haidt): moral thinking is highly intuitive
and emotional, and only appears to be a product of
careful reasoning because of people’s after-the-fact
rationalizations of their thinking.

22. • Perhaps the thought of pushing somebody to
death is more emotionally salient
• Hypothesis (Greene et al.): differences in
emotional engagement determine difference in
response
• Trolley dilemma: “impersonal” moral dilemma.
• Footbridge dilemma: “personal” moral dilemma.
requires active personal involvement

23. Recent Brain Imaging Insights
• Greene et al.: performed brain imaging
experiments to reveal differences in the way the
emotional circuits in brain are activated during
moral reasoning.

24. fMRI Results

25. • Trolley dilemma: “impersonal” moral dilemma
 activated memory areas
• Footbridge dilemma: “personal” moral dilemma
requires active personal involvement
 activated brain areas associated with emotion

26. Behavioral Results

27. • Footbridge dilemma activates immediate
emotional response
• A few subjects still say “appropriate”.
• These response times should be slow because
the response is “incongruent” with the immediate
emotional response

28. • Results do not show how to reason correctly
• They show what happens during reasoning --
intuitive emotional reactions affect moral
judgments