Speaker
Description
Einstellung is a phenomenon where a well-known solution that comes immediately to mind prevents other alternatives from being considered. The effect has been many times replicated, but little is known about the cognitive mechanism behind it. Based on results in the expertise approach, it is claimed that after solving a series of similar problems learning mechanisms create patterns, which are stored as knowledge in long-term memory (LTM). If a problem looks familiar, the pattern gets retrieved from LTM and automatically draws attention to the aspects that are congruent with the pattern and away from those that are not. In six experiments, eye tracking revealed that the participants’ attention was immediately drawn to aspects of the problem congruent to the activated schema. Unsuccessful participants were not able to disengage their attention from the now irrelevant elements of the problem and instead devote it to the relevant elements. In contrast, solvers managed to disengage their attention from the irrelevant elements of the problem and started devoting it to the relevant elements. The Einstellung situations illustrate a drawback of this otherwise efficient mechanism.
