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The purpose of Metcalfe and Wiebe's experiment was to compare insight and non-insight problem solving. In their study, participants were presented with problems that either required insight or were more straightforward, and they were asked to provide "warmth" judgments – essentially, evaluations of how close they felt they were to solving the problems at that moment. This methodology allowed the researchers to gather insight into the cognitive processes involved in different types of problem solving.

The concept of "insight" in this context refers to a sudden realization or a clear understanding of a problem that can lead to the solution, which is often experienced as a sudden "aha!" moment. In contrast, non-insight problems tend to involve more incremental reasoning and logical steps that lead to a solution. By analyzing how participants made warmth judgments while solving these two types of problems, the researchers could draw conclusions about the differences in cognitive processes between insight-oriented and non-insight problem solving. This differentiation is crucial in understanding how various types of problems are approached and solved.