Insight in the Kinenoetic Field

Insight problems offer an interesting tool to observe how new ideas are developed to solve simple but vexing problems. Research typically proceeds with so-called second order procedures where participants are prevented from interacting with the world, forcing them to find a solution through mental processes alone. In contrast, when participants can interact with the environment they think with and through the world by building a physical model of the solution. Properly instrumentalized, such a first order procedure enables the granular tracing of the changes to the model of the solution. These changes reflect the co-constitutive coupling of thoughts and object, or object-thought mutualities. These mutualities are recovered with the mapping of the kinenoetic field, a term coined to capture the emergence of new ideas through the spatio-temporal changes to a physical object, namely the dynamic evolution of the model of the solution. We contrast the explanatory promises and challenges that arise from a programme of research based on second order problem solving with those from a programme that explores first order thinking.