The most dramatic form of creativity is the “Aha! Moment,”—what experimental psychologists and neuroscientists call “insight.” Insights are sudden realizations that pop into awareness, seemingly from nowhere. They are the source of new inventions, poems, symphonies, and mathematical theorems. They also provide practical solutions to everyday problems. Using examples from problem solving and musical improvisation, this talk will explain what an insight is, how the brain generates them, and how to have more of them. 

John Kounios, PhD, is a professor in Drexel University’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences who has published research on insight, creativity, problem solving, memory, and Alzheimer’s disease, and coauthored (with Mark Beeman) the international Amazon Bestseller, The Eureka Factor: Aha Moments, Creative Insight, and the Brain (Random House). John's research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation and has been reported by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Times (London), and National Public Radio, and was featured in BBC Television and Discovery Science Channel documentaries. His work was profiled by The New Yorker and The Saturday Evening Post and is part of a permanent exhibit in Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. He is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, the Psychonomic Society, and the International Society for the Study of Creativity and Innovation.