Productive thinking: the role of perception and perceiving opposition.

Contemporary studies dealing with problem solving as a process of reasoning have focused on many cognitive aspects of this process but have disregarded the role of perceptual- figural aspects. Conversely, the importance of perceptual processes in problem solving has come to the foreground in studies on learning geometry (which have shown the importance of manipulating figural features in the solution process) and studies on insight in problem solving (which have demonstrated the importance of restructuring a problem in order to solve it). This article aims to stimulate a reconsideration of the role of perception in problem solving by suggesting 1) that the degree of freedom established by the perceptual / representational structure of a problem guarantees a natural mechanism of epistemic vigilance in the cognitive reorganization process activated when a solution is sought and 2) that analyzing the perceptual structure of a problem by finding “the contrary” of its original properties helps people to restructure the problem and find a solution. The results of two studies are discussed in support of this second hypothesis.