How can taking a break help us solve problems more effortlessly?

[zoobyshoe]

Something similar can happen when ur sleeping. It turns out that while ur asleep the brain reorganises information and u end up with a better memory the next day.


May I ask, where did you get this information? Is it from a book?

PIT2 can't answer your quetion. He's been banned, as indicated by a horizontal slash through his username.

 

[Frame Dragger]

This is a common technique among artists.

I'm rather surprised that everyone is talking about this as if there's so little study done on it.

While I believe that the left-brain / right brain model has been somewhat discredited, the work done on localized task delegation is still valid isn't it? Parts of the mind are better at vocal, talking, analyzing, word-based tasks, while other parts are better at visual, creative, holistic picture-based tasks.

When you're stuck on a problem, it's because your dominant analytical mind is fully active and overrides the more passive, less communicative holistic mind. Unfortunately, the analytical mind also quite linear, and won't choose the path less taken.

By talking a break, or distracting yourself, your analytical mind moves on to something else. This is gives your more passive, creative, but less communicative mind a chance to tackle the problem. It has no problem taking illogical paths, which is often what needs to happen when you're at a logical dead-end.

Oh yes, and in fact the easiest way to test this is often done in basic learning trials. Introduce someone to a "racing" videogame, and let them run through a difficult course many times. Have them take a break, (better yet a night's sleep) and come back to it; they tend to improve far more than one who continues to hammer at it. Our minds organize memory while dreaming, but much of this organization and consideration is subliminal and done during waking. It's fun, but it also points out the "ensemble" nature of human consciousness; we think a lot, but much of the work isn't done with conscious deliberation.