The psychiatrist testified that she believed the defendant was able to understand his fate because he’d played tic-tac-toe against her and won. The state of California didn’t agree with Scharlette’s interpretation of the defendant and had him medically assessed. (He was schizophrenic with an IQ of 58 and very much out of touch with reality.) She had to prove his insanity to the court to save this man’s life because it’s illegal to execute someone who is unable to understand why he is being executed. Scharlette practiced in California and at the time she was defending an inmate whom she believed was legally insane. That’s what this story is about.” Not only was this woman passionate about our feathered friends, she somehow used a chicken to creatively solve a problem she faced with a client.īut what does a chicken have to do with the law? I’m talking about - you can just picture it - this beautiful leghorn, his tail perked up, and that red comb sitting at kind of a rakish angle on his head, and his head kind of cocked to the side, and he looks at you with his little eyes. I mean just the image - and I’m not talking about any chicken. Here’s what she said to make me stop and listen more intently: “Well, a fluffy, red-combed leghorn deserves his moment in the sun. The chicken was enough to pique my interest, but what followed beautifully described the Aha Moment in action.

She defended prisoners on death row, and in one particular case was faced with an impossible situation that called for a chicken. While listening to a story on WBEZ’s This American Life, I learned about an attorney, Scharlette Goldman. How cool is it that scientists can map the moment of insight within the brain? Those subjects who solved the anagrams by employing insight showed a sudden burst of EEG activity in the temporal lobe at the moment the solution became available–the Aha Moment. Thus it’s possible to conclude that genetics and life experience play a role in how each person’s brain rests and subsequently approaches problem solving.Ĭheck out the picture above. Rather, individual differences in one’s resting brain state activity can also influence the thinking strategy employed. Researchers also found that goal-related thinking (thinking that’s related to solving a specific problem) is not only determined by goals or tasks at hand. And people using insight tend to make errors of commission at the same rate that methodical thinkers make errors of omission. Conversely, those who are more methodical tend to focus their attention more narrowly, allowing less input to enter into their thought process. Highly creative people tend to mind wander, or use diffuse thinking processes, allowing for a broader range of input while solving a problem. The findings regarding insight drew my interest. Immediately after reaching the solution, subjects self reported their problem-solving techniques insight or methodical searching. Using electroencephalography (EEG), the researchers recorded the brain’s activity in subjects while solving the anagrams. Ascertaining this tendency would allow the researchers to further clarify whether one’s thinking process is determined by the problem at hand or if more fundamental neural processes exist that influence the inclination to use one strategy over another. The researchers wanted to show the effect a resting brain state would have on the strategies people use - either sudden insight or methodical searching - to solve problems or anagrams. In a 2009 study, John Kounios, Jessica Fleck, Deborah Green, Lisa Payne, Jennifer Stevenson, Edward Bowden and Mark Jung-Beeman conducted a study called the origins of insight in resting-state brain activity. Today I like to think I’ve wised up enough to step away from the problem and allow my mind to do a “slow simmer.” Then…Boom! The solution hits me when I least expect it. Microsoft’s marketing gurus hope that Bing will evoke a sound - the ringing of a bell that signals the “aha” moment when a search leads to an answer.You know that feeling when you just can’t solve a problem? When I was younger, I’d force myself to focus on it until I came to a conclusion, which naturally led to a creative block and unnecessary frustration. 2009 May 28, Miguel Helft, ' Microsoft’s Search for a Name Ends With a Bing,' New York Times (retrieved ):.Her aha moment came in 2003: 'This, I realized, was my passion.' 2007 March 8, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, ' The Zeal For the Job,' Time:.We are never made to understand why Oskar Schindler, the Nazi war profiteer, risked his life to save more than 1,200 Jews there is no defining Aha! moment that accounts for his heroism. 30, Peter Rainer, ' Spielberg backlash strikes ‘Schindler’,' Toledo Blade (USA), p. ( idiomatic ) The moment or instant at which the solution to a problem, or some other significant realization, becomes clear.

Aha moment