Engineering uses a complex semi-formal process to develop innovative products that bring value to users. While we know a lot about how people become fixated on past solutions and how the design process can be structured to lead designers to new solutions, much remains to be understood the process of insight and innovation, particularly regarding the cognition that underlies it. We brings the theories and methods of cognitive psychology to unpack the complex events of design that occur in the real world.

Design Tools to Cognitive Processes to Innovation. We are collecting data (~50 hrs/team) from semester-long product realization teams (approximately 60 teams across three yrs of data collection) to understand how the artifacts and tools in the design environment shape cognitive processes like analogy and mental simulation to in turn influence the quality of final solutions.

Emotion under the Transfer of Insight. During flashes of insight, the cognition mixes with emotion to color the insght. We are studying (through eye-tracking and self-report) how the emotional character of the insight moment changes the extent to which the insights are robust for later problem solving.