Abstract
Many people have claimed that sleep has helped them solve a difficult problem, but empirical support for this assertion remains tentative. The current experiment tested whether manipulating information processing during sleep impacts problem incubation and solving. In memory studies, delivering learning-associated sound cues during sleep can reactivate memories. We therefore predicted that reactivating previously unsolved problems could help people solve them. In the evening, we presented 57 participants with puzzles, each arbitrarily associated with a different sound. While participants slept overnight, half of the sounds associated with the puzzles they had not solved were surreptitiously presented. The next morning, participants solved 31.7% of cued puzzles, compared with 20.5% of uncued puzzles (a 55% improvement). Moreover, cued-puzzle solving correlated with cued-puzzle memory. Overall, these results demonstrate that cuing puzzle information during sleep can facilitate solving, thus supporting sleep’s role in problem incubation and establishing a new technique to advance understanding of problem solving and sleep cognition.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1616-1624 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Psychological Science |
Volume | 30 |
Issue number | 11 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 1 2019 |
Funding
This work was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R03HD087111) awarded to M. Beeman.
Keywords
- creative cognition
- incubation
- problem solving
- restructuring
- sleep
- targeted memory reactivation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Psychology
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Dive into the research topics of 'Targeted Memory Reactivation During Sleep Improves Next-Day Problem Solving'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Datasets
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Audio_Clip_S1-1008 – Supplemental material for Targeted Memory Reactivation During Sleep Improves Next-Day Problem Solving
Sanders, K. E. G. (Creator), Osburn, S. (Creator), Paller, K. A. (Creator) & Beeman, M. (Creator), SAGE Journals, 2019
DOI: 10.25384/sage.9974492, https://sage.figshare.com/articles/Audio_Clip_S1-1008_Supplemental_material_for_Targeted_Memory_Reactivation_During_Sleep_Improves_Next-Day_Problem_Solving/9974492
Dataset
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Targeted Memory Reactivation During Sleep Improves Next-Day Problem Solving
Sanders, K. E. G. (Creator), Osburn, S. (Creator), Paller, K. A. (Creator) & Beeman, M. (Creator), SAGE Journals, 2020
DOI: 10.25384/sage.c.4696484.v2, https://sage.figshare.com/collections/Targeted_Memory_Reactivation_During_Sleep_Improves_Next-Day_Problem_Solving/4696484/2
Dataset
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Audio_Clip_S2-1036 – Supplemental material for Targeted Memory Reactivation During Sleep Improves Next-Day Problem Solving
Sanders, K. E. G. (Creator), Osburn, S. (Creator), Paller, K. A. (Creator) & Beeman, M. (Creator), SAGE Journals, 2019
DOI: 10.25384/sage.9974495, https://sage.figshare.com/articles/Audio_Clip_S2-1036_Supplemental_material_for_Targeted_Memory_Reactivation_During_Sleep_Improves_Next-Day_Problem_Solving/9974495
Dataset