Frames of Reference in Architectural Design:Analyzing the Hyper-Acclamation (A-h-a-!)

The discovery of a creative solution occasionally corresponds to the sudden attainment of a mental insight. Our purpose is to formally describe this phenomenon and the cognitive mechanisms that lead to it. The approach is based on the replicability of just such an insight which underlies the solution to a well known puzzle: the nine-dot puzzle. The insight coincides with the realization that the problem can only be solved when a spurious constraint is removed. Two experimental results are reported: one on the nine-dot puzzle and the other on an architectural sketch design problem. The sketch design problem was structured with several restricting frames of reference to create a situation analogous to the nine-dot puzzle. Subjects’ design behavior was analyzed to identify the mechanisms used in achieving the mental insights which allow designers to go beyond the implicit restrictions of these frames. A general model, called SMI-GI, of the mental insight based design and discovery process is described. This model foresees a computer system that can be used to simulate the mental insight mechanism and consequently lead to the systematic examination of this aspect of design creativity. 1. Creativity and the Sudden Mental Insight During the late fifties and sixties, as the inventory on design methods was increasing, behaviorist psychology turned its attention to creativity. Conferences and symposia were held, while proceedings, treatises and papers were published. Most of these studies attempted to describe creativity through the stimulus-response paradigms that were dominant at that time. Relationship of creativity to related phenomena was also explored. These included subjects such as, genius, creative genius, intelligence, originality, talent, divergent thinking, aesthetics, even nervous disorders. The typical approach to this subject is found in studies measuring personality traits (MacKinnon, 1972). These studies report the designers' performance on tests such as the Concept Mastery Test (Terman, 1956), Gottschaldt Figure Test (Crotchfield, 1958), General Information Survey and California Psychological Inventory (Gough, 1954), Allport-Vernon-Lindsay Study of Values (1951), Barron-Welsh Art Scale (1952), and Minnesota Multiphasis Personality Inventory (Hathaway and McKinley, 1945). As implied by the names given to these tests, their results focus on general behavioral tendencies.