Abstract
The study aimed to reveal task-related differences in story creation with and without the mental effort of overcoming self-induced stereotypes. Eighteen right-handed subjects (19.3 ± 1.1 years old) created stories. The subjects reported the formation of story plot stereotypes (as we call them: self-induced) during self-regulated creative production, which had to be overcome with the instruction to continue the story. Creative task fulfillment (without formed stereotypes—first stage of creation) was characterized by a decrease in the wave percentages of 9–10 Hz, 10–11 Hz and 11–12 Hz frequencies and EEG desynchronization (decreases in EEG spectral power) in the theta (4–8 Hz), alpha1 (8–10 Hz) and alpha2 (10–13 Hz) frequency bands in comparison with the REST (random episodic silent thought) state. The effortful creation task (with overcoming of self-induced stereotypes-second stage of creation) was characterized by increases in waves with frequencies of 9–10 Hz, 10–11 Hz, 11–12 Hz in temporal, occipital areas and pronounced EEG synchronization in alpha1,2 frequency bands in comparison with the free creation condition. It was also found, that the participants with the higher originality scores in psychological tests demonstrated increased percentage of high frequencies (11–12 Hz in comparison with those who had lower originality scores. Obtained results support the role of alpha and theta frequency bands dynamics in creative cognition.
Highlights
The spectral power analysis revealed between-task differences in the wide frequency bands and was not sensitive to the between-group differences, while the frequency structure analysis gave us an opportunity to speculate on the functional role of narrow frequency ranges within the alpha bands during creative ideation
We supported the special role of alpha and theta frequency bands for creative task performance and obtained, that it might be crucial for conditions of overcoming self-induced stereotypes
The increasing of the alpha EEG spectral power in “effortful creation” in comparison with the “free creation” condition might be related to external information inhibition and may be important for associative processes and the recombination of semantic information for overcoming self-induced thinking stereotypes, rearrange previous conception and create novel interpretations
Summary
We ourselves can implicitly form the boundaries of our perception of situations or things and form “thinking stereotypes” that can constrict the novelty of our ideas These types of stereotypes often occur in our daily lives and can disappear if an event begins to contradict them. This is why expanding life experience can increase creativity [2,3]. We called this type of “thinking stereotypes” in the perception of a situation or problem as “self-induced”, “self-created” stereotypes as they seem to be dependent on individual experience
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