In a study by Bowers, Regehr, Balthazard, & Parker (1990), participants were given dyads of triads – two remote associate triplets, only one of which actually converged on an associate (e.g., notch-flight-spin, which can all be associated with T

versus clear-role-force, which have no common associate). Upon the presentation of the two triads, participants had to attempt a solution, and if unsuccessful, were to guess which of the triads were actually solvable. The results indicated that:
a) participants usually failed to come up with an associate, and weren't very good at picking the solvable triad, either.
b) participants regularly came up with associates for the triads that had no obvious associate.
c) participants had good metacognitive awareness of the processes that led to the problem solution.
d) even if participants couldn't come up with the associate, they were better than chance at picking which triad was solvable.

Answer: d