This is the behavioral data & analysis R script for the manuscript: Surprise! - Dimensions of the AHA! experience correspond differently to a meta-cognitive prediction error (Becker, Wang, Cabeza, 2023)
Abstract: The AHA! experience, a thrilling moment of deep understanding during insightful problem solving involving feelings of certainty, pleasure and surprise, has captivated psychologists for over a century. Recently, a new theoretical framework has proposed a link between the AHA! experience and prediction errors (PE) originally known in decision-making and reinforcement learning. This framework suggests that participants maintain a meta-cognitive prediction about the time it takes to solve a problem and the AHA! experience arises when the problem is solved earlier than expected, resulting in a meta-cognitive PE. In our pre-registered online study, we delved deeper into this idea, investigating whether prediction errors also pertain to participants' predictions regarding the solvability of the problem itself and which dimension of the AHA! experience aligns with this meta-cognitive PE. Utilising verbal insight problems, we found a positive association between the AHA! experience and a meta-cognitive PE specifically linked to problem solvability. Precisely, the element of surprise - one AHA! dimension - emerged as a key indicator of this PE, while other dimensions such as pleasure, certainty, or suddenness showed no similar relationships. This new finding provides further evidence that aspects of the AHA! experience - surprise - correspond to a meta-cognitive PE, but it also underscores the multifaceted nature of this phenomenon, bridging insights into learning theories and enhancing our understanding of this intriguing phenomenon.