{"id":1540,"date":"2020-09-29T15:00:15","date_gmt":"2020-09-29T20:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/wels-educator\/?p=1540"},"modified":"2020-08-05T13:00:56","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T18:00:56","slug":"the-science-behind-the-aha-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/wels-educator\/2020\/09\/29\/the-science-behind-the-aha-moment\/","title":{"rendered":"The Science Behind the \u201cAha!\u201d Moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Nicole Lehman<\/em><\/p>\n

I think we can all admit that one of the highlights of being a teacher is seeing the \u201cAha!\u201d or lightbulb moment go off in our students\u2019 faces. We work so hard to help them understand a complex subject, or their brains have a hard time grasping what we find to be obvious, and so, after many attempts, we finally find the right thing to say and BAM! The light bulb comes on. These are the moments that make you smile at the end of a hard day\/week\/month. If only they weren\u2019t so rare a sighting! <\/p>\n

Research Behind the \u201cAha!\u201d Moment
\n<\/strong>Research has found how and why these moments occur and offers suggestions on how to create an environment to inspire more of these moments. Besides the fact that they make us feel good as teachers, \u201cAha\u201d moments have several benefits for students, including stronger long-term memory with that information. Research shows that after an \u201cAha!\u201d moment, a person is unlikely to go back to his or her previous state of not knowing (Ishikawa et al. 2012, p. 2).<\/p>\n

One might think these random moments are just happenstance. If so, why keep reading? If they\u2019re going to happen, they\u2019re going to happen. However,\u00a0there actually is scientific reasoning behind these moments. A decent amount of research has been done in the area of cognitive psychology and studies involving fMRI and EEG readings of the brain. In all honesty, this research hurts the brain, and you pray for an \u201cAha!\u201d moment yourself whilst reading the data, so I won\u2019t make you try. Instead, I\u2019ll summarize and share what you can do in the classroom to help promote more of these \u201cAha!\u201d moments. I\u2019ll provide references for those studies at the end if you are really interested in finding out more.<\/p>\n

\u201cAha!\u201d moments and insight often go hand in hand with problem-solving. Solving insight problems often requires unconscious thought, as the solution can\u2019t simply be arrived at following step-by-step instructions or a specific formula retrieved from working memory. Insight problems can be connected to various forms of practical, artistic, and scientific creativity, as well as perception, joke comprehension, and problem-solving (Shen et al., 2015).<\/p>\n

Features of the Aha! Moment:<\/strong><\/p>\n