Alternative Task Research Articles

Measuring flexibility: A text-mining approach.

In creativity research, ideational flexibility, the ability to generate ideas by shifting between concepts, has long been the focus of investigation. However, psychometric work to develop measurement procedures for flexibility has generally lagged behind other creativity-relevant constructs such as fluency and originality. Here, we build from extant research to theoretically posit, and then empirically validate, a text-mining based method for measuring flexibility in verbal divergent thinking (DT) responses. The empirical validation of this method is accomplished in two studies. In the first study, we use the verbal form of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) to demonstrate that our novel flexibility scoring method strongly and positively correlates with traditionally used TTCT flexibility scores. In the second study, we conduct a confirmatory factor analysis using the Alternate Uses Task to show reliability and construct validity of our text-mining based flexibility scoring. In addition, we also examine the relationship between personality facets and flexibility of ideas to provide criterion validity of our scoring methodology. Given the psychometric evidence presented here and the practicality of automated scores, we recommend adopting this new method which provides a less labor-intensive and less costly objective measurement of flexibility.

Investigating the relationship between mindfulness, stress and creativity in introductory engineering design

Abstract Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) for engineering design are promising for their stress management, cognition and well-being benefits. Prior work concluded that engineering design is stressful and that each engineering design stage has unique stressors. This non-randomized study investigated the effect of an MBI on students’ cognitive stress and final design creativity during a multistage, hands-on design assessment. Data were collected using surveys, project deliverables and follow-up interviews. While no significant increase was found in students’ measured state mindfulness due to the intervention, students in the MBI condition were more likely to perceive the intervention positively compared to students in the control condition (alternative use tasks). Students in both conditions were found to have similar levels of state stress, which indicates that the MBI had no observable effect on students’ measured stress during design. Although students in the MBI condition were found to produce higher-quality final designs, there were no differences in design creativity or novelty. When data were clustered to identify types of student experiences, state mindfulness was found to meaningfully contribute, but state stress was not. Future research should continue to investigate MBIs in engineering design as a potential approach to improve design education and outcomes.

A Scalable Heuristic for Mission Planning of Mobile Robot Teams

In this work, we investigate a task planning problem for assigning and planning a mobile robot team to jointly perform a kitting application with alternative task locations. To this end, the application is modeled as a Robot Task Scheduling Graph and the planning problem is modeled as a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP). We propose a heuristic approach to solve the problem with a practically useful performance in terms of scalability and computation time. The experimental evaluation shows that our heuristic approach is able to find efficient plans, in comparison with both optimal and non-optimal MILP solutions, in a fraction of the planning time.

Beyond alpha-band: The neural correlate of creative thinking

The compound nature of creativity entails the interplay of multiple cognitive processes, making it difficult to attribute creativity to a single neural signature. Divergent thinking paradigms, widely adopted to investigate creative production, have highlighted the key role of specific mental operations subserving creativity, such as inhibition of external stimuli, loose semantic associations, and mental imagery. Neurophysiological studies have typically shown a high alpha rhythm synchronization when individuals are engaged in creative ideation. Also, oculomotor activity and pupil diameter have been proposed as useful indicators of mental operations involved in such a thinking process. The goal of this study was to investigate whether beyond alpha-band activity other higher frequency bands, such as beta and gamma, may subserve divergent and convergent thinking and whether those could be associated with a different gaze bias and pupil response during ideas generation. Implementing a within-subjects design we collected behavioral measures, neural activity, gaze patterns, and pupil dilation while participants performed a revised version of the Alternative Uses Task, in which divergent thinking is contrasted to convergent thinking. As expected, participants took longer to generate creative ideas as compared to common ones. Interestingly, during divergent thinking participants displayed alpha synchronization along with beta and gamma desynchronization, more pronounced leftward gaze shift, and greater pupil dilation. During convergent thinking, an opposite pattern was observed: desynchronization in alpha and an increase in beta and gamma rhythm, along with a reduction of leftward gaze shift and greater pupil constriction. The present study uncovered specific neural dynamics and physiological patterns during idea generation, providing novel insight into the complex physiological signature of creative production.

Constructive episodic retrieval processes underlying memory distortion contribute to creative thinking and everyday problem solving.

Constructive episodic retrieval processes play an adaptive role in supporting divergent thinking (i.e., creatively combining diverse bits of information) and means-end problem solving (i.e., generating steps to solve a social problem). However, the constructive nature of episodic memory that supports these adaptive functions also leads to memory error. In three experiments we aimed to identify a direct link between divergent thinking and means-end problem solving - as assessed in the Alternative Uses Task (AUT) and Means-End Problem Solving (MEPS) task - with the generation of false memories in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm. In Experiment 1, we replicated prior findings where false memory was positively correlated with performance on the AUT, and also showed for the first time that increased performance in the MEPS task is associated with increased false recall. In Experiment 2,we demonstrated that the link between false recall and performance on the MEPS task did not extend to other forms of problem solving, as assessed with the Everyday Descriptions Task (EDT). In Experiment 3,we showed that when the EDT was preceded by the MEPS task in an attempt to influence participants to engage in a similar episodic-problem solving strategy, performance in both tasks was correlated with false memory. These findings provide evidence for a direct link between the adaptive benefits of constructive episodic processes, in the form of enhanced divergent creative thinking and problem solving, and costs, in the form of increased memory error.

Neurophysiological Characteristics of Alternative Uses Task Performance by Means of ERP and ERS/ERD Data Analysis Depending on the Subject’s Productivity and Originality Levels

Neurophysiological Characteristics of Alternative Uses Task Performance by Means of ERP and ERS/ERD Data Analysis Depending on the Subject’s Productivity and Originality Levels

Thinking about thinking: People underestimate how enjoyable and engaging just waiting is.

The ability to engage in internal thoughts without external stimulation is a unique characteristic in humans. The current research tested the hypothesis that people metacognitively underestimate their capability to enjoy this process of "just thinking." Participants (university students; total N = 259) were asked to sit and wait in a quiet room without doing anything. Across six experiments, we consistently found that participants' predicted enjoyment and engagement for the waiting task were significantly less than what they actually experienced. This underappreciation of just thinking also led participants to proactively avoid the waiting task in favor of an alternative task (i.e., Internet news checking), despite their experiences not being statistically different. These results suggest an inherent difficulty in accurately appreciating how engaging just thinking can be, and could explain why people prefer keeping themselves busy, rather than taking a moment for reflection and imagination in our daily life. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

BALANCED DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM AND RESORT AND RECREATIONAL SPHERE: INTERNATIONAL, NATIONAL AND REGIONAL VECTORS

The subject of the study is international, national and regional vectors of balanced development of tourism and resort and recreational sphere. Methodology. The study used general scientific methods, in particular: theoretical generalization; methods of positive and normative analysis and statistical analysis. The aim is to substantiate the process of balanced development of tourism and resort and recreational sphere using international, national and regional vectors in modern conditions. Conclusion of the study. International experience of balanced tourism development has shown that among the leading countries in tourism are France, USA, China, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Mexico, Thailand. It is emphasized that these countries are annually visited by 30 to 100 million tourists. It was noted that France ranks first among the countries that attract tourists, the tourist flow to which in 2019 amounted to 217.8 million people, in 2020 it decreased to 117.1 million people, or almost 1.86 times; in second place among the leading countries is the United States of America, where in 2019 the tourist flow amounted to 167.4 million people, and in 2020 it decreased by almost 3.7 times and amounted to 44.7 million people; China ranks third in terms of tourist visits in 2019 – 167.5 million people, in 2020 it decreased to 30.4 million people, or 5.3 times. Analysis of the national experience of tourism development showed that the pandemic of viral infection also had the most significant impact on the reduction of tourist flows in Ukraine. It is noted that in 2019, the reduction of inbound tourists was almost 4 times, while the reduction of tourists in 2014 at the beginning of military aggression was 1.8 times. The authors consider it appropriate to predict a slight reduction in tourist flows during a full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine and to ensure the development of an innovative model of balanced development of national tourism. The creation of an innovative model of balanced development of tourism and resort and recreational sphere with the use of international, national and regional vectors is quite relevant in modern conditions. It is proved that such a model should ensure the achievement of public interests, short-term and long-term goals in solving alternative tasks of obtaining quick and maximum profit by the tourism business and meeting the needs of international tourist traffic and international capital in solving the problem of geographical promotion of tourist flows to new territories.

The effects of viewing cute images on the performance of simple computerized tasks in dog owners and non-dog owners.

Viewing cute images of puppies or kittens can improve the performance of various motor tasks due to increased behavioral carefulness. It is possible, however, that this effect can be moderated by the affinity of individuals towards specific cute stimuli. The purpose of this pre-registered study was to examine whether dog ownership moderates the effect of viewing cute images of puppies on two computerized RT-based tasks. One-hundred and sixty-four participants were covertly recruited and randomly assigned to four groups: (1) dog owners viewing puppies' images (n = 35), (2) dog owners viewing adult dogs' images (n = 36), (3) non-dog owners viewing puppies' images (n = 48), and (4) non-dog owners viewing adult dogs' images (n = 45). The participants performed a Simon task and an alternate task-switching task before and after viewing seven images of puppies/adult dogs based on group affiliation. After performing the tasks, the participants rated each image on five characteristics: cuteness, infantility, pleasantness, excitability, and wanting to get closer. The participants who viewed images of puppies rated those characteristics (e.g., cuter, more infantile, etc.) as higher than the participants who viewed images of adult dogs. There were no differences in the performance of the two tasks between participants who viewed images puppies and participants who viewed images of adult dogs. However, dog owners reacted faster than non-dog owners in the post-test of the alternate task-switching task. It is possible that showing images of dogs to dog owners increased their motivation and attention to the task.

An experimental study into the fault recognition of onboard systems by navigational officers

Autonomy has allowed the maritime industry to design integrated systems leading to the concept of maritime autonomous surface ships. As research towards autonomous operations increases seafarers must be equipped with the knowledge of how to react to onboard system faults and threats to the safety of crew, vessel and cargo. Consequently, the maritime industry may utilise bridge simulators to train seafarers in autonomous operations. By integrating simulation into navigational officer training, it is possible to aid the development of seafarers fault recognition patterns. Moreover, simulation training can provide seafarers with the knowledge to be proactive in fault finding over reactive. Therefore, this study is conducted in a navigational simulator and investigates the fault recognition patterns of seafarers during realistic watch conditions with alternative tasks i.e. paperwork. Moreover, a novel Event Tree Analysis method is proposed to analyse the performance of seafarers and effectiveness of human machine relationship. The study found a low percentage of candidates successfully reacted to all faults and without additional alarms the vessel may have resulted in further danger. Applying the methodology and data assimilated from the study could aid the development of navigational officer short courses, developing seafarers behavioural skills which complement their technical talents.

Individual differences in naturally occurring affect predict conceptual breadth: evidence for the importance of arousal by valence interactions

Several studies have investigated the effect of induced mood state on conceptual breadth (breadth and flexibility of thought). Early studies concluded that inducing a positive mood state broadened cognition, while inducing a negative mood state narrowed cognition. However, recent reports have suggested that valence and arousal can each influence conceptual breadth. Individual differences in affective dispositions may bias perceptions, thoughts, and behaviors and, in turn, may be biased by them. Here, we examine whether individual differences in valence and arousal dimensions of self-reported, naturally occurring affect relate to conceptual breadth (using the Remote Associates Test, the Object Categorization Task, and the Alternative Uses Task), with no mood manipulations or cues. The three conceptual breadth tasks loaded onto a latent conceptual breadth factor that was predicted significantly by the interaction of valence and arousal. For participants low in arousal, greater positive affect was associated with greater conceptual breadth. For participants high in arousal, greater positive affect was associated with reduced conceptual breadth. In contrast to most existing theories of conceptual breadth that highlight the importance of valence or arousal alone, the present results suggest that the interaction between arousal and valence is key to predicting individual differences in conceptual breadth. We posit that positive mood states predict greater conceptual breadth in the presence of low versus high arousal due to a relaxation of cognitive control under low arousal.

Creativity in Emergency Settings

ABSTRACT Emergency situations are generally described as combining both threat and time pressure. Creative solutions to deal with such situations are important. The present studies (Ntotal = 1190) investigated how people are able to produce creative solutions in an emergency. Our first study was correlational, and assessed individual creativity and reactions to emergency situations using self-report questionnaires. It was complemented by three experimental studies. In those, critical features of emergency situations were manipulated (i.e., time pressure and/or threat level) to examine their putative impact on individual performance on creative tasks (Alternate Uses Task and Real Life Problem). Three dependent variables systematically qualified individuals’ creative performance: fluency (i.e., the number of ideas proposed), originality (i.e., the average rarity of the ideas proposed), and originality adjusted for fluency (i.e., the rarity of the most original idea proposed). Taken together, the results observed tend to indicate that increasing emergency (i.e., increasing time constraint or threat importance) produced an average reduction in the originality of the ideas proposed. These results complement previously obtained results about the effect of stressful situations on creativity through the distinction made in this paper between two key components of emergency situations, namely time pressure and threat level.

A new screening test for idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus using bimanual coordination: A preliminary study.

The clinical spectrum of idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH) comprises the triad of gait disturbance, cognitive impairment, and urinary incontinence. However, motor abnormalities involving the upper extremities in iNPH patients have few quantitative studies. The present study was designed to quantitatively assess bimanual tapping tasks in iNPH patients and to compare with the control groups. The subjects were divided into three groups: iNPH patients, older healthy group, and younger healthy group. The tasks were three synchronization finger-to-thumb tapping tasks with the auditory stimuli specified at 1 Hz by metronome: unilateral, bimanual simultaneous, and bimanual alternate. Two-way ANOVA was used to compare the outcomes of the three errors (absolute error: AE, variable error: VE, and constant error: CE) for tapping cycles. In the iNPH group, the absolute and variable errors increased in bimanual alternate tapping task with statistical significance (AE: p < 0.05 and VE: p < 0.05). There were no significant differences in errors between the older and young healthy groups (AE: p = 0.62, CE: p = 1.00 and VE: p = 0.31). We could quantitatively evaluate the bimanual coordination on iNPH patients using the bimanual alternate tapping task, potentially useful for evaluating patients unable to walk.

A Placebo-Controlled Study to Assess the Sensitivity of Finger Tapping to Medication Effects in Parkinson's Disease.

Movement Disorder Society-Unified Parkinson's Rating Scale Part III (MDS-UPDRS III) is the gold standard for assessing medication effects in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, short and rater-independent measurements would be ideal for future trials. To assess the ability of 3 different finger tapping tasks to detect levodopa/carbidopa-induced changes over time and to determine their correlation and compare their discriminatory power with MDS-UPDRS III. This was a randomized, double-blind, crossover study in 20 patients with PD receiving levodopa/carbidopa and placebo capsules after overnight medication withdrawal. Pre- and up to 3.5 hours postdose, MDS-UPDRS III and tapping tasks were performed. Tasks included 2 touchscreen-based alternate finger tapping tasks (index finger versus index-middle finger tapping) and a thumb-index finger task using a goniometer. In the alternate index finger tapping task, levodopa/carbidopa compared with placebo resulted in significantly faster (total taps: 12.5 [95% confidence interval, CI, 6.7-18.2]) and less accurate tapping (total spatial error: 240 mm [95% CI, 123-357 mm]) with improved rhythm (intertap interval standard deviation [SD], -16.3% [95% CI, -29.9% to 0.0%]). In the thumb-index finger task, tapping was significantly faster (mean opening velocity, 151 degree/s [64-237 degree/s]), with a higher mean amplitude (8.4 degrees [3.7-13.0 degrees]) and improved rhythm (intertap interval SD, -46.4% [95% CI, -63.7% to -20.9%]). The speed-related endpoints showed a moderate-to-strong correlation with the MDS-UPDRS III (r=0.45-0.70). The effect sizes of total taps and spatial error in the alternate index finger tapping task and opening velocity in the thumb-index finger task were comparable with the MDS-UPDRS III. In contrast, the MDS-UPDRS III performed better than the alternate index-middle finger task. The alternate index finger and the thumb-index finger tapping tasks provide short, rater-independent measurements that are sensitive to levodopa/carbidopa effects with a similar effect size as the MDS-UPDRS III.

Neuronal Response to Reward and Luminance in Macaque LIP During Saccadic Choice

Recent work in decision neuroscience suggests that visual saliency can interact with reward-based choice, and the lateral intraparietal cortex (LIP) is implicated in this process. In this study, we recorded from LIP neurons while monkeys performed a two alternative choice task in which the reward and luminance associated with each offer were varied independently. We discovered that the animal’s choice was dictated by the reward amount while the luminance had a marginal effect. In the LIP, neuronal activity corresponded well with the animal’s choice pattern, in that a majority of reward-modulated neurons encoded the reward amount in the neuron’s preferred hemifield with a positive slope. In contrast, compared to their responses to low luminance, an approximately equal proportion of luminance-sensitive neurons responded to high luminance with increased or decreased activity, leading to a much weaker population-level response. Meanwhile, in the non-preferred hemifield, the strength of encoding for reward amount and luminance was positively correlated, suggesting the integration of these two factors in the LIP. Moreover, neurons encoding reward and luminance were homogeneously distributed along the anterior-posterior axis of the LIP. Overall, our study provides further evidence supporting the neural instantiation of a priority map in the LIP in reward-based decisions.

Capturing, clarifying, and consolidating the curiosity-creativity connection

The cognitive-motivational concepts of curiosity and creativity are often viewed as intertwined. Yet, despite the intuitively strong linkage between these two concepts, the existing cognitive-behavioral evidence for a curiosity-creativity connection is not strong, and is nearly entirely based on self-report measures. Using a new lab-based Curiosity Q&A task we evaluate to what extent behaviorally manifested curiosity—as revealed in autonomous inquiry and exploration—is associated with creative performance. In a preregistered study (N = 179) we show that, as hypothesized, the novelty of the questions that participants generated during the Curiosity Q&A Task significantly positively correlated with the originality of their responses on a divergent-thinking task (the conceptually-based Alternative Uses Task). Additionally, the extent to which participants sought out information that was implicitly missing in the presented factual stimuli ("gap-related information foraging") positively correlated with performance on two predominantly convergent-thinking tasks (the Remote Associates Task and Analogy Completion). Question asking, topic-related information foraging, and creative performance correlated with trait-based "interest-type" curiosity oriented toward exploration and novelty, but not with "deprivation-type" curiosity focused on dispelling uncertainty or ignorance. Theoretically and practically, these results underscore the importance of continuing to develop interventions that foster both creative thinking and active autonomous inquiry.

Alternative Object Use in Adults and Children: Embodied Cognitive Bases of Creativity.

Why does one need creativity? On a personal level, improvisation with available resources is needed for online coping with unforeseen environmental stimuli when existing knowledge and apparent action strategies do not work. On a cultural level, the exploitation of existing cultural means and norms for the deliberate production of novel and valuable artifacts is a basis for cultural and technological development and extension of human action possibilities across various domains. It is less clear, however, how creativity develops and how exactly one arrives at generating new action possibilities and producing multiple alternative action strategies using familiar objects. In this theoretical paper, we first consider existing accounts of the creative process in the Alternative Uses Task and then present an alternative interpretation, drawing on sociocultural views and an embodied cognition approach. We explore similarities between the psychological processes underlying the generation of new uses in the Alternative Uses Task and children’s pretend play. We discuss possible cognitive mechanisms and speculate how the generation of new action possibilities for common objects in pretend play can be related to adults’ ability to generate new action strategies associated with object use. Implications for creativity development in humans and embodied artificial agents are discussed.

An Improved Hybrid Swarm Intelligence for Scheduling IoT Application Tasks in the Cloud

The usage of cloud services is growing exponentially with the recent advancement of Internet of Things (IoT)-based applications. Advanced scheduling approaches are needed to successfully meet the application demands while harnessing cloud computing’s potential effectively to schedule the IoT services onto cloud resources optimally. This article proposes an alternative task scheduler approach for organizing IoT application tasks over the CCE. In particular, a novel hybrid swarm intelligence method, using a modified Manta ray foraging optimization (MRFO) and the salp swarm algorithm (SSA), is proposed to handle the problem of scheduling IoT tasks in cloud computing. This proposed method, called MRFOSSA, depends on using SSA to improve the local search ability of MRFO that typically enhances the rate of convergence towards the global solution. To validate the developed MRFOSSA, a set of experimental series is performed using different real-world and synthetic datasets with variant sizes. The performance of MRFOSSA is tested and compared with other metaheuristic techniques. Experiment results show the superiority of MRFOSSA over its competitors in terms of performance measures, such as makespan time and cloud throughput.

What can you do with a bottle and a hanger? Students with high cognitive flexibility give more ideas in the presence of ambient noise

Creativity has become a favourable skill to develop in higher education due to its value in society. Ambient noise during creative performance has traditionally been regarded as an environmental stressor and distractor, but recent findings suggest a positive impact of ambient noise on creative performance. It is still unclear what drives these inconsistent findings and whether individual differences between students explain the differential impact of noise on their performance. This study investigated the impact of ambient noise on divergent thinking performance in undergraduates during the COVID-19 pandemic, when common learning spaces were restricted and people were instructed to work from home. It also explored how cognitive flexibility (e.g., the ability to switch between different tasks and explore different strategies to problems) interacted with the impact of noise. Forty-two undergraduates completed an adult computer-based version of the Dimensional Change Card Sort task (DCCS) (a measure of cognitive flexibility) in silence, and the Alternative Uses Task (a measure of divergent thinking) in silence and in ambient noise displayed through headphones. On average, participants gave more ideas in the presence of ambient noise than in silence, but these ideas were not more original. Furthermore, the impact of noise interacted with cognitive flexibility. Participants who were more efficient at the DCCS (suggesting better cognitive flexibility) gave more ideas in noise. These findings can help to inform educational institutes and students on the influence the physical environment might have on divergent thinking.

Where Divergent Ideas Converge: Answers to AUT Found on Short List of Word Co-Occurrences Terms

ABSTRACT Divergent thinking (DT) is a fundamental part of creative ideation. Understanding its role in cognition and its attainment through language technology can provide the scaffolding to enhance creative endeavors. This study is a proof of concept on the automatic generation of keyword responses as found on the AUT (Alternative Uses Task), a test commonly used to measure DT. Within a psychometric perspective, we propose a frequency-based simple word co-occurrence method called Co-OBM (co-occurrence-based method). Drawing from Natural Language Processing (NLP) we choose the adequate parameter settings for this task, including part-of-speech tagging (POS), word form, association measure, minimum occurrence in corpus and window size. Through our experiments, we show how most of the popular responses to AUT can be identified in a short word co-occurrence list, together with some of the least frequent, and usually more creative, responses, how this outcome is not random but based on linguistic patterns (Experiment 1); and how Co-OBM output can enhance the performance of subjects’ AUT responses (Experiment 2). This is relevant since word co-occurrence is at the core of current language models. Our work aims to reflect and provide technical and empirical foundations for the development of distributional language models for creative purposes.