Insights into Insight Workshop

La Jolla, California

September 26-28, 2008.

Organizers

Terry Sejnowski
Jonathan Schooler

Overview
The aim of this workshop is to explore the changes that take place in the brain following new insights into the solutions of problems.

What is the connection between perceptual insights and problem solving? What aspects of nonconscious processing are involved? How does sleep lead to insights?

This will be a very informal setting and there should be ample time to discuss the issues in depth. There will be experts on a wide range of topics related to problem solving, including sleep, visual perception, and infant development. Several of the participants in our workshop were quoted in the recent New Yorker article titled "The Eureka Hunt." See:

http://web.mit.edu/ekmiller/Public/www/miller/News_Articles/Lehrer_Insight_New_Yorker.pdf

Confirmed Participants:

Jonathan Schooler (UC Santa Barbara)

Mark Jung Beeman (Northwestern)

John Kounios (Drexel)

Bob Stickgold (Harvard)

Sarah Mednick (UC San Diego)

Scott Makeig (UC San Diego)

John Hopfield (Princeton)

Dan Kersten (Minnesota)

Terry Sejnowski (Salk)

Jennifer Wiley (U of Illinois, Chicago)