How children understand aha-experiences in problem solving.

Josefine Haugen, Mathilde H Prenevost, Ida B R Nilsen, Evalill Bølstad, Francisco Pons, Rolf Reber

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Article in The British journal of developmental psychology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

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1citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

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3 · Its place in the literature

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1 citing paper in PubMed.

How children understand aha-experiences in problem solving.The British journal of developmental psychology · 2025
Article

4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Josefine HaugenDepartment of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.ORCID 0000-0001-7855-6111

Mathilde H PrenevostDepartment of Psychology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-2451-1262

Ida B R NilsenDepartment of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.

Evalill Bølstad *Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.

Francisco PonsDepartment of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.

Rolf ReberDepartment of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.

Funding

The Research Council of Norway

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Two studies explore how 4-8-year-old children develop an understanding of aha-experiences. Study 1 used a scenario approach to investigate children's understanding of the impact that having an insight has on affect. Children (N = 125) rated affect of a story character at different timepoints in problem-solving scenarios with and without aha-moments. Study 2 presented children (N = 167) with a story character displaying an aha response and two different stories of problem solving that may have led to the response. Results show that from age 4, children associate aha-experiences with positive affect. However, age differences were observed for triggers of aha-experiences. While 4-5-year-olds attributed aha-experiences to external triggers (the solution), 7-8-year-olds attributed them to mental triggers (a new insight). These findings indicate that children's understanding of aha-experiences develops over time, which aligns with theories of emotional development and theory of mind.

Indexed as

AffectChild DevelopmentComprehensionProblem SolvingAge FactorsChildChild, PreschoolFemaleHumansMaleTheory of Mindaha‐experiencesemotion developmentinsightproblem solving

Identifiers

PMID40247640

DOI10.1111/bjdp.12565

PMCPMC12505822

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.