Einstellung Effect - Explanations and Interpretations

Explanations and Interpretations

The Einstellung effect can be supported by theories of inductive reasoning. In a nutshell, inductive reasoning is the act of inferring a rule based on a finite number of instances. Most experiments on human inductive reasoning involve showing subjects a card with an object (or multiple objects, or letters, etc.) on it. The objects can vary in number, shape, size, color, etc. and the subjects job is to answer (initially by guessing) "yes" or "no" as to whether or not the card is a positive instance of the rule (which must be inferred by the subject). Over time the subjects do tend to learn the rule, but the question is how? Kendler and Kendler (1962) proposed that older children and adults tend to exhibit noncontinuity theory; that is, the subjects tend to pick a reasonable rule and assume it to be true until it proves false. Regarding Einstellung effect, one can view noncontinuity theory as a way of explaining the tendency to maintain a specific behavior until it fails to work. In the water-jar problem, subjects generated a specific rule because it seemed to work in all situations; when they were given problems for which the same solution worked, but a better solution was possible, they still gave their tried and true response. Where theories of inductive reasoning tend to diverge from the idea of Einstellung effect is when analyzing the fact that, even after an instance where the Einstellung rule failed to work, many subjects reverted back to the old solution when later presented with a problem for which it did work (again, this problem also had a better solution). One way to explain this observation is that in actuality subjects know (consciously) that the same solution might not always work, yet since they were presented with so many instances where it did work, they still tend to test that solution before any other (and so if it works, it will be the first solution found).

Neurologically, the idea of synaptic plasticity, which is an important neurochemical explanation of memory, can help to understand the Einstellung effect. Specifically, Hebbian theory (which in many regards is the neuroscience equivalent of original associationist theories) is one explanation of synaptic plasticity (Hebb, 1949). It states that when two associated neurons frequently fire together - while infrequently firing apart from one another - the strength of their association tends to become stronger (making future stimulation of one neuron even more likely to stimulate the other). Since the frontal lobe is most often attributed with the roles of planning and problem solving, if there is a neurological pathway which is fundamental to the understanding of Einstellung effect, the majority of it most likely falls within the frontal lobe. Essentially, a Hebbian explanation of Einstellung could be as follows: stimuli are presented in such a way that the subject recognizes him or herself as being in a situation which he or she has been in before. That is, the subject sees, hears, smells, etc. an environment which is akin to an environment which he or she has been in before. The subject then must process the stimuli which are presented in such a way that he or she exhibits a behavior which is appropriate for the situation (be it run, throw, eat, etc.). Because neural growth is, at least in part, due to the associations between two events/ideas, it follows that the more a given stimulus is followed by a specific response, the more likely that in the future that stimulus will invoke the same response. Regarding the Luchins’ experiment, the stimulus presented was a water-jar problem (or to be more technical, the stimulus was a piece of paper which had words and numbers on it which, when interpreted correctly, portray a water-jar problem) and the invoked response was B - A - 2C. While it is a bit of a stretch to assume that there is a direct connection between a water-jar problem and B - A - 2C within the brain, it is not unreasonable to assume that the specific neural connections which are active during a water-jar problem-state and those that are active when one thinks “take the second term, subtract the first term, then subtract two of the third term” tend to increase in the amount of overlap as more and more instances where B - A - 2C works are presented.