Mitch has been asked to develop a new product to serve an unmet need in American culture. He has several ideas, but none of them are quite right. Mitch's friend finally suggests that Mitch "sleep on it." Mitch agrees, and spends the remainder of the weekend thinking about other things. On Monday morning, Mitch looks over his notes and realizes the solution to his problem. The period of time in which Mitch let his subconscious work on the problem is referred to as
A)incubation.
B)generativity.
C)representativeness.
D)functional fixedness.
E)cognitive repurposing.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The period during which Mitch let his subconscious work on the problem, leading to a solution later, is referred to as incubation. This term is used in psychology to describe a process where a problem is set aside for a while, but the brain continues to work on it subconsciously, often leading to insights or solutions later on.

Mitch Has Been Asked to Develop a New Product to Serve