Effects Of Perceptual Condition And Visual Complexity On Perceptual Insight

Previous studies have explored insight in problem solving,with relatively little attention paid to insight taking place at the level of visual perception,and there is still relatively little exploration of the mechanisms and influencing factors of perceptual insight.Accordingly,the present study adopted a new paradigm,the embedded Chinese character task(The targets are hidden or unhidden in intersecting or non-intersecting spatial relationships,and the individual were asked to search the target characters from the source characters)to explore the mechanisms and influences of perceptual insight.Study 1 focused on Experiments 1a(behavior)and 1b(eye movements)to investigate whether the perceptual conditions(hidden intersection vs.unhidden non-intersection)in the embedded Chinese character task could trigger perceptual epiphanies in an induced or endogenous manner,and thus to test whether the embedded Chinese character task could be used as a new paradigm to study perceptual insight.Study 2 focused on the effect of visual complexity on perceptual insight and its mechanisms through Experiment 2(eye movements).The behavioral results of Experiments 1a and 1b in Study 1 found that individuals in both the induced or endogenous manner had significantly less accuracy and more reaction times in the hidden intersecting condition(compared to the unhidden non-intersecting condition),as well as higher greater of suddenness and surprise in the aha experience.The results indicated that individuals experienced more impasse and had greater aha experiences when recognizing and searching for the target characters in the hidden intersecting condition,which confirms the influence of perceptual conditions on perceptual insight,as well as the validity of the new paradigm.Moreover,the eye-movement results of Experiment 1b found that 1)During the early recognition phase,the fixation duration was longer in the hidden intersecting condition.2)The fixation duration increased abruptly in the hidden intersecting condition before the keypress response.The results suggest that in the early recognition phase,target characters are hiding in tightly intersecting spatial relationships,which leads to more difficult recognition and perception of target characters,triggering greater perceptual conflict.At the late stage of the resolution phase,target characters were recognized through perceptual representational transformations in the hidden intersecting condition.The behavioral result of Experiment 2 in Study 2 found that in the hidden intersecting condition,high visual complexity had lower accuracy and more reaction times than low visual complexity.The eye-movement results showed that 1)In the later stages of recognition phase,high visual complexity had longer fixation duration than low visual complexity,but there was no difference in the early stages of recognition phase.2)During the early recognition phase,there were more number of fixations in high visual complexity than in the low visual complexity in the unhidden non-intersecting condition,while there was no difference between the two in the hidden intersecting condition,as well as in low visual complexity,more number of fixations in the hidden intersecting condition than in the unhidden non-intersecting condition,but no difference in the high visual complexity.The results indicate that perceptual conditions and visual complexity interacted,and that target characters hidden in intersecting spatial relationships or in a highly visually complex background(source characters)interfered with the recognition of target characters and made it difficult to perceive the target characters.In the later stages of recognition,there are differences in processing between high and low visual complexity,that interference caused by high visual complexity resulting in more cognitive processing required to recognize the target character.The main conclusions of this study are as follows: Firstly,the hidden intersecting perceptual condition leads to the impasse of perceptual insight and aha experience,which further confirms the validity of the embedded Chinese character task as a new paradigm for studying perceptual insight.Secondly,the process of perceptual insight involves two main processing processes: interference and perceptual conflict in early recognition,and the transformation of perceptual representations in the visual-perceptual space in late stages.Thirdly,high visual complexity causes a hindering effect on the recognition and perception of target characters,but this effect may be limited by perceptual condition.