The path to insight: developing methods to increase the effectiveness of insightful solution detection

This paper presents the results of a study on the effectiveness of instructional video as a tool for forming the most comprehensive concept of insightful solutions for a solver; test results of the new scales for evaluating insightful solutions; and finally, the ratio of objective criteria of insightful solutions measured against the formal structure of the problem. We hypothesized that watching an instructional video with a visual image of an insightful solution prior to solving a problem might increase the accuracy of insightful solution detection when compared to a textual definition of insight. We expected that the new scales for assessing insightfulness of a solution will be more accurate than the scales set up by the classic Danek's questionnaire. Evidence from this study shows the effectiveness of the instructional video in forming a comprehensive concept of an insightful solution. A visual and complex image of an insightful solution with a display of its various criteria can improve the accuracy of an insightful solution detection. This study demonstrated that the assessment with the new scales is more consistent with the formal structure of the problem than the assessment made with the Danek's questionnaire. The procedural-resultative and cognitive -affective measurements of the new scales more accurately provide differentiate insightful and non-insightful solutions. At the same time, we have found that the objective criteria of an insightfulness of the solution generally correlate with the formal structure of a problem.