Insight and creative thinking processes: Routine and special

Abstract

In recent years there has been an upsurge of research aimed at removing the mystery from insight and creative problem solving. The present special issue reflects this expanding field. Overall the papers gathered here converge on a nuanced view of insight and creative thinking as arising from multiple processes that can yield surprising solutions through a mixture of “special” (automatic, unconscious and associative) Type 1 processes and “routine” (controlled, conscious and analytic) Type 2 processes.