Université de Paris, Paris, France.
Interdisciplinary Centre for the Artificial Mind (iCAM), FSD, Bond University, 14 University Drive, Gold Coast, QLD, 4226, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2021 Jan 21;11(1):1876. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-81532-w.
Intuition and insight can be deployed on the same continuum. Intuition is the unconscious ability to create links between information; insight is a process by which a sudden comprehension and resolution of a situation arises (i.e. euréka). In the present study, real and virtual environments were used to trigger intuition and insight. The study hypothesised that immersion in real primed environments would facilitate the emergence of intuition and insight in a virtual environment. Forty nine healthy participants were randomly assigned to two groups: "primed" and "non primed." "Primed" participants were immersed in a real environment with olfactory and visual cues; "non primed" participants did not receive any cues. All participants were exposed to a 3D naturalistic virtual environment which represented a district in Paris via a Head Mounted Display (HMD). Locations presented in the virtual scene (i.e. café places) were related to both olfactory and visual primes (i.e. café) and were based on the continuity between real and virtual environments. Once immersed in the virtual environment, all participants were instructed to use their intuition to envision the selected locations during which Skin Conductance Responses (SCRs) and verbal declarations were recorded. When initiation (a) and immersion (b) phases in the virtual environment were considered, "primed" participants had higher SCRs during the immersion phase than the initiation phase in the virtual environment. They showed higher SRCs during the first part of the virtual immersion than "non primed" participants. During the phenomenological interview, "primed" participants reported a higher number of correct intuitive answers than "non primed" participants. Moreover, "primed" participants "with" insight had higher SCRs during real environment immersion than "primed" participants "without" insight. The findings are consistent with the idea that intuitive decisions in various tasks are based on the activation of pre-existing knowledge, which is unconsciously retrieved, but nevertheless can elicit an intuitive impression of coherence and can generate insight.
直觉和洞察力可以在同一条连续线上展开。直觉是在信息之间建立联系的无意识能力；洞察力是一种突然理解和解决情况的过程（即尤里卡）。在本研究中，使用真实和虚拟环境来触发直觉和洞察力。该研究假设沉浸在真实的启动环境中会促进虚拟环境中直觉和洞察力的出现。49 名健康参与者被随机分配到两组：“启动”和“非启动”。“启动”组参与者沉浸在有嗅觉和视觉线索的真实环境中；“非启动”组参与者没有接受任何线索。所有参与者都通过头戴式显示器（HMD）暴露在一个代表巴黎一个区的 3D 自然主义虚拟环境中。虚拟场景中呈现的位置（即咖啡馆场所）与嗅觉和视觉线索（即咖啡馆）相关联，并且基于真实和虚拟环境之间的连续性。一旦沉浸在虚拟环境中，所有参与者都被指示使用他们的直觉来想象所选位置，同时记录皮肤电反应（SCR）和口头声明。当考虑虚拟环境中的启动（a）和沉浸（b）阶段时，“启动”组参与者在虚拟环境中的沉浸阶段的 SCR 高于启动阶段。他们在虚拟沉浸的第一部分比“非启动”组参与者表现出更高的 SCR。在现象学访谈中，“启动”组参与者报告的正确直觉答案数量多于“非启动”组参与者。此外，与没有洞察力的“启动”参与者相比，具有洞察力的“启动”参与者在真实环境沉浸期间的 SCR 更高。研究结果与这样一种观点一致，即在各种任务中的直觉决策是基于预先存在的知识的激活，这些知识是无意识地检索的，但仍然可以产生连贯的直觉印象，并产生洞察力。
