Hołda Małgorzata, Głodek Anna, Dankiewicz-Berger Malwina, Skrzypińska Dagna, Szmigielska Barbara
Section of Sleep Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland.
Department of Educational Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Pedagogical University of Cracow, Cracow, Poland.
Front Psychol. 2020 Apr 9;11:559. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00559. eCollection 2020.
The main goal of the present study was to explore the role of sleep in the process of ill-defined problem solving. The results of previous studies indicate that various cognitive processes are largely dependent on the quality and quantity of sleep. However, while sleep-related memory consolidation seems to be well-grounded, with regard to the impact of sleep on problem solving, existing research yields mixed and rather inconclusive results. Moreover, this effect has been mainly tested using simple and well-defined, common laboratory problems, such as the remote associate test (RAT), crossword and anagram puzzles, numeric and logic problems, etc. What is lacking is research on the effect of sleep on solving more complex and more real-life oriented ill-defined problems. In the present study, we hypothesized that sleep can improve performance in solving this kind of problems. The study involved 40 participants, randomly assigned to two experimental conditions: sleep group and waking group. The experimental protocol comprised three stages: problem presentation, retention interval, and testing stage. The problem was presented to the participants in the form of an interactive computer game concerning a complex, elaborate crime story. During the retention interval, the participants-depending on the condition-took a nap or stayed awake; sleeping participants underwent polysomnography recording, while waking participants performed activities not related to the experimental problem. In the testing stage, participants tried to solve the presented problem. The solutions generated were assessed both for quality (reasonableness, consistency, and story recall) and creativity (fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration). Contrary to expectations, we found no effect of sleep on ill-defined problem solving. Neither quality nor creativity of the solutions generated by the participants was higher in the nap group than in the waking group. There were also no performance improvements with regard to any sleep stage or incidence of dreams. Our study adds to a growing body of evidence that sleep probably might provide an incubation gap, but not a facilitating environment serving the purpose of problem solving, at least with regard to ill-defined problems.
本研究的主要目标是探究睡眠在解决模糊问题过程中的作用。先前研究结果表明，各种认知过程在很大程度上依赖于睡眠的质量和时长。然而，虽然与睡眠相关的记忆巩固似乎有充分依据，但就睡眠对问题解决的影响而言，现有研究结果不一且尚无定论。此外，这种影响主要是通过简单明确的常见实验室问题进行测试的，比如远距离联想测验（RAT）、填字游戏、字谜游戏、数字和逻辑问题等。缺乏的是关于睡眠对解决更复杂、更贴近现实生活的模糊问题的影响的研究。在本研究中，我们假设睡眠可以提高解决这类问题的表现。该研究涉及40名参与者，随机分配到两个实验条件组：睡眠组和清醒组。实验方案包括三个阶段：问题呈现、间隔期和测试阶段。问题以一个关于复杂、精心设计的犯罪故事的交互式电脑游戏的形式呈现给参与者。在间隔期，参与者根据所处条件要么小睡一会儿，要么保持清醒；睡眠的参与者进行多导睡眠图记录，而清醒的参与者进行与实验问题无关的活动。在测试阶段，参与者尝试解决呈现的问题。对生成的解决方案从质量（合理性、一致性和故事回忆）和创造性（流畅性、灵活性、原创性和详尽性）两方面进行评估。与预期相反，我们发现睡眠对解决模糊问题没有影响。小睡组参与者生成的解决方案在质量或创造性方面均不比清醒组更高。在任何睡眠阶段或梦境发生率方面也没有表现提升。我们的研究进一步证明，睡眠可能提供了一个孵化间隙，但至少就模糊问题而言，并非是一个有助于解决问题的环境。
