Alternate Uses Task Research Articles

Enhancing creative divergent thinking in older adults with a semantic retrieval strategy

ABSTRACT Creative divergent thinking involves the generation of unique ideas by pulling from semantic memory stores and exercising cognitive flexibility to shape these memories into something new. Although cognitive abilities decline with age, semantic memory tends to remain intact. This study aims to utilize that memory to investigate the effectiveness of a brief cognitive training to improve creative divergent thinking. Older adults were trained using a semantic retrieval strategy to improve creativity in the Alternate Uses Task (AUT) and the Divergent Association Task (DAT). Participants were tested on the AUT and DAT across three time points: before the strategy was introduced (T0 and T1) and afterward (T2). Results showed that the strategy enhances idea novelty in the AUT; additionally, participants that initially scored lowest on the AUT showed the greatest increase in AUT performance. This finding suggests that older adults can use a semantic retrieval strategy to enhance creative divergent thinking.

Does creativity breed unethical behavior? The roles of novelty and appropriateness in unethical behavior

Although researchers posit that creativity leads to more unethical behavior, findings have been mixed. The inconsistency may stem from previous studies prioritizing novelty over appropriateness. The goal of this study was to investigate the potential associations between novelty and appropriateness in creativity and children's inclinations towards implicit and explicit unethical behavior. Primary school children (N = 263, Mage = 11.25; 44.5 % girls) completed the alternative uses task (AUT) measuring their creativity and questionnaires measuring their unethical behavior tendency. Results showed that novelty was positively correlated with unethical behavior, while appropriateness was negatively correlated with unethical behavior. Most importantly, appropriateness moderated the relationship between novelty and children's unethical behavior. The current findings improve the understanding of the association between creativity and unethical behavior and its underlying mechanism. It demonstrates that novelty and appropriateness play different roles in unethical behavior. Further, these results can inspire methods to cultivate creativity in educational environments and daily life.

Novelty Seeking Differences in Temporal Dynamics for Novelty and Appropriateness Processing of Creative Information: An ERP Investigation

ABSTRACTNovelty seeking has been found to affect creative performance, but its impact on the temporal dynamics of creative information processing remains unclear. Creative information is identified by two key indicators—novelty and appropriateness. To explore the effect of novelty seeking on the temporal processing of novelty and appropriateness, a revised alternative uses task (AUT) was conducted with 29 high novelty‐seeking (HNS) and 31 low novelty‐seeking (LNS) individuals. Event‐related potentials (ERPs) and spontaneous blink rate (EBR) were used to measure temporal dynamics and infer physiological mechanisms. (1) For novelty processing, HNS individuals performed quicker information processing (shorter N1/P2 latency) and had a greater capacity to recognize semantic distance (higher P600 peak amplitude). (2) For appropriate processing, HNS individuals also had a faster information processing rate (shorter N1/P2 latency). (3) HNS individuals had higher baseline EBR and showed enhancements in cognitive speed based on real‐time EBR. In contrast, the LNS group did not show the same improvement even with increased attention allocation. These findings expand the application of the Novelty Seeking Model (NGM) in creative information processing. Additionally, the results of EBR suggest that dopamine might be the critical physiological mechanism through which novelty‐seeking influences creative information processing.

How does the Dunning-Kruger effect happen in creativity? The creative self-concept matters

The Dunning-Kruger effect refers to the tendency of unskilled individuals to overestimate their abilities while skilled individuals tend to underestimate themselves. The purpose of this study is to investigate the existence of the Dunning-Kruger effect in creativity and identify its key determinants. Using the cue-utilization framework, we explored how inaccurate metacognitive judgments result from creative self-concept, compared to those who can accurately evaluate themselves. Two hundred and ten university students completed an Alternative Uses Task (AUT) and evaluated their performance with self- and comparative judgments, then they reported the creative self-concept. The study conducted a two-step clustering analysis based on individuals' creative performance, judgments, and Bias Index of metacognitive judgments, and identified four distinct groups: 'skilled but underestimate' (SU group), 'unskilled but aware' (UA group), 'skilled and aware' (SA group), and 'unskilled and overestimate' (UO group). The SU and UO groups were typical examples of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Using binary logistic regression analysis, we found that high creative self-concept enabled skilled individuals to assess their creativity accurately, while it caused unskilled individuals to overestimate their creativity. This study identified the Dunning-Kruger effect in creativity while also offering new insights into the underlying mechanism of the Dunning-Kruger effect.

The relationship between media multitasking and creativity: a multi-test, multi-method analysis.

Media multitasking is widespread, yet its relationship with creativity remains unclear. This study employs a combination of measures, including the media multitasking questionnaire, alternative uses task (AUT) for divergent thinking, Chinese compound remote association task (CCRAT) for convergent thinking, and a creative problem-solving task, to examine the relationship between media multitasking and creativity. Extreme values grouping [one standard deviation above or below the mean of the media multitasking index (MMI)], median value grouping, and regression analysis were used to explore the relationship between media multitasking and creativity. The results revealed the following findings: (1) across the three analysis methods, there was no significant relationship between media multitasking and performance on the AUT task. However, within the range of one standard deviation above or below the mean of the MMI, media multitasking showed a significant positive correlation with fluency, flexibility, and total scores on the AUT task. (2) Media multitasking significantly predicted the accuracy of responses on the CCRAT task positively. (3) Media multitasking significantly predicted lower scores on the applicability of creative problem-solving tasks.

Open and closed-ended problem solving in humans and AI: The influence of question asking complexity

Question-asking, an underexplored aspect of creativity, is integral to creative problem-solving and information-seeking. Previous research reveals that lower creativity correlates with asking simpler, closed questions, while higher creativity correlates with complex, open-ended inquiries. The present study explores the relation between question asking complexity and problem-solving tasks involving open- and close-ended thinking and how these abilities generalize and compare to AI. In Study 1, participants (N = 89) completed the alternative questions task (AQT), a close-ended riddles task (Stumpers), and the alternate uses task (AUT), a creativity measure. Our results show AQT question complexity wasn't correlated with stumpers performance, although it correlated with AUT originality (r = .3). In Study 2, participants (N = 100) completed the AQT, AUT, and open-ended creative problem-solving (CPS) task. CPS responses were evaluated for originality and quality. A positive correlation was observed between CPS quality and AQT complexity (r = .29) and originality (r = .34). In study 3, AI agents (N = 100) completed the AQT, AUT, stumpers, and CPS tasks. Like humans, AI's AQT originality and complexity were related with open, but not closed problem-solving. AI questions were also significantly more creative and complex, it solved more stumpers and gave higher quality CPS solutions. Surprisingly, human and AI CPS originality didn't differ. We find significant links between question complexity and open—but not closed-ended—problem-solving in humans, which generalize to AI. Our results highlight the significance of complex and creative question-asking in everyday life and as an integral part of our problem-solving toolkit.

Controlling stimulus ambiguity reduces spurious creative ideation variance in a cyclic adaptation of the alternative uses task

In the alternative uses task (AUT), a well-established creativity assessment, participants propose alternative uses for common items (e.g., a brick) within a 2–3 min timeframe. While idea evaluation is likely involved, the emphasis is strongly on idea generation. Here, we test the value of presenting a word overlapping an image compared to a word only prompt, and we introduce a cyclic adaptation of the AUT explicitly calling on participants to choose their best idea. In Experiment 1, as compared to word only, word + image prompts increased idea fluency but reduced idea originality and variability within a group of native Polish speakers. Thus, word + image prompts improve AUT baselining. In Experiment 2, different participants produced as many ideas as possible within two minutes (List) or their single best idea at the end of each of three 30 s ideation cycles (Cycle). Although originality did not differ between List and Cycle overall, the first three ideas in List were rated as less creative than the ideas in Cycle. Overall, we conclude that using disambiguating images reduces spurious interindividual variability in the AUT while introducing idea evaluation in the task allows us to assess creativity beyond idea generation.

Using large language models to evaluate alternative uses task flexibility score

In the Alternative Uses Task (AUT) test, a group of participants is asked to list as many uses as possible for a simple object. The test measures Divergent Thinking (DT), which involves exploring possible solutions in various semantic domains. In this study we employ a Machine Learning approach to automatically generate suitable categories for object uses and classify given responses into them. We show that the results yielded by this automated approach are correlated with results given by humans and can be used to predict expected behavior in the field. Educators and researchers may utilize this approach to address the limitations of subjective scoring, save time, and use the AUT as a tool for cultivating creativity.

EEG oscillatory evidence for the temporal dynamics of divergent and convergent thinking in the verbal knowledge domain

This study investigates neural mechanisms of divergent and convergent thinking in the verbal knowledge domain while taking into account activation related to working memory (WM). Divergent thinking was assessed using the Alternate Uses Task (AUT) and convergent thinking using the Compound Remote Associates task (RAT). We analyzed upper alpha band (10–12 Hz) oscillatory activity, in which we accounted for the temporal dynamics of both thinking processes by investigating three different time points during each trial for both tasks. We subtracted WM-related oscillatory activity measured by a serial recall task within the same knowledge domain and by using highly similar stimulus material as in both divergent and convergent thinking tasks. Our results show a strong upper alpha synchronization during divergent relative to convergent thinking, most pronounced at fronto-parietal electrodes. Moreover, we observed highest synchronization towards the middle (in contrast to the beginning and end) of each trial during both thinking processes. The results of the present study extend previous findings in the visuo-spatial knowledge domain, using a highly similar analytical approach to investigate divergent and convergent thinking. Together, these findings provide theoretical implications on how divergent and convergent thinking interact beyond WM across different knowledge domains by emphasizing their complex interplay.

Impaired creative cognition after surgery for an IDH-mutated glioma: A proof-of-concept study

Assessment of high cognitive functions, such as creativity, is often overlooked in medical practice. However, it is crucial to understand the impact of brain tumors, specifically low-grade gliomas, on creative cognition, as these tumors predominantly affect brain regions associated with cognitive creativity. In this study, we investigated creative cognition using the Alternative Uses Task (AUT) and the Combination of Associates Task (CAT) in a cohort of 29 patients who underwent brain surgery for a low-grade glioma, along with 27 control participants. While the group of patients did not exhibit deficits in clinical neuropsychological assessments, our results revealed significant impairment in generating original and creative ideas compared to the control group. Furthermore, when analyzing the specific brain regions affected by the tumors, patients with lesions overlapping the left rostro-lateral prefrontal cortex, a critical region for creativity, displayed more pronounced impairments in the CAT compared to patients with lesions outside this region. These findings provide proof of concept that patients can experience impaired creative cognition following surgery for low-grade glioma, highlighting the importance of assessing higher-order cognitive functions, including creativity, in neurosurgical patients. Moreover, beyond its clinical relevance, our study contributes to advancing our understanding of the neuroscience of creativity.

Creative Activities Among Older Adults and People With Cognitive Impairment

ABSTRACTLittle is known about creativity in old age. The aim of this study was to investigate to what extent the intensity of engaging in creative activities differs between older and younger people as well as older people with and without cognitive impairment. Moreover, we evaluated associations of creative activities with specific cognitive abilities. For this cross‐sectional study, groups of younger people (n = 24), older cognitively healthy people (n = 24), and older cognitively impaired people (n = 23) were recruited via convenience sampling. Creative activities were assessed via the creative behavior inventory (CBI). Cognitive abilities were assessed via trail making test (TMT), standard progressive matrices (SPM), creative reasoning task (CRT), test of creative thinking‐drawing production (TCT‐DP), and alternate uses task (AUT). The intensity of engaging in creative activities was higher among younger people but was not significantly associated with being cognitively impaired. Only two cognitive abilities, the creative thinking scores CRT‐Components and TCT‐DP‐Original, predicted creative activities. Both did not differ significantly between cognitively healthy and cognitively impaired older adults. The findings suggest that cognitively impaired older people still engage in creative activities, which might be due to their relatively sound creative thinking. Further studies should investigate whether engaging in creative activities can mitigate cognitive decline.

Using the divergent association task to measure divergent thinking in Chinese elementary school students

The Divergent Association Task (DAT), published in July 2021, is a psychological test designed to measure an individual's divergent thinking. The test requires participants to name ten nouns that exhibit maximum dissimilarity from each other. The semantic distance between these nouns is then calculated to indicate the person's level of divergent thinking. In this study, we explored the applicability of the DAT for elementary school students in Chinese contexts, given that it was not initially designed for this specific population and was available only in English. We recruited a total of 348 students who were asked to complete three creativity tasks: the DAT, the Alternative Uses Task (AUT), and the Bridge-the-Associative-Gap Task (BAG). We examined the associations between DAT and the scores of the AUT and BAG tests. Moreover, we tested the accuracy of the DAT using varying numbers of nouns and different natural language processing models to calculate the semantic distance between nouns. Our findings supported the suitability of using the DAT to measure divergent thinking in elementary school students within Chinese contexts. We also found that using only eight nouns, instead of ten, could achieve a relatively high accuracy in measuring divergent thinking based on the DAT method. The language model of Word2Vec performed better than the BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) and GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) models when calculating semantic distances between nouns. This study has methodological and practical implications.

Poor creativity in interictal migraine: A case–control pilot study

Background/Hypothesis: Creativity is a cognitive process that affects the performance of many daily life activities. This process, in turn, is influenced not only by various environmental factors but also by numerous individual aspects. Chronic pain is one of the factors that has proven to negatively affect creativity. Our hypothesis is that people with migraine in the interictal phase also have lower levels of creativity than the control group. Methods: We collected data from participants with migraine ( n = 31) in the interictal phase and from a non-migraine control group ( n = 30). We used the Alternative Uses Task (AUT) test and the Creative Intelligence Test (CREA) to evaluate creativity. Results: Our results revealed lower creativity in participants with migraine. This was confirmed by both the AUT (fluency: controls 7.4 (4.35) vs. participants with migraine 4.4 (2.9); p < 0.001; originality: controls 2.353 (0.457) vs. participants with migraine 2.07 (0.278); p < 0.001; flexibility: controls 3.4 (1.55) vs. participants with migraine 2.0 (1.0); p < 0.001) and CREA (controls 14.0 (9.875) vs. participants with migraine 9.5 (5.0); p = 0.004) tests. Interpretation: The present pilot study provides evidence that migraine, even in the interictal period, reduces creative ideation and this may impact the quality of life of these individuals.

The effect of self-related humor on convergent and divergent thinking

Humour enhances creativity, but the question is whether different types of humour have a similar effect on improving individual creativity. It is evident that negative humour style is negatively related to creativity, while positive humour style is positively related to it. However, no evidence has been found that self-related humour (self-enhancing and self-defeating humour) directly affects creative thinking in the experimental setting. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the effect of self-related humour on convergent and divergent creative thinking. We included 60 (38 male, 22 female) participants and randomly assigned 20 in each condition to conduct this experiment. To evoke humour, we used 12 stimuli (12 self-enhancing jokes, 12 self-defeating jokes, and 12 non-humorous statements) in each condition. Remote Association Task (RAT) was used to measure convergent thinking, and Alternative Uses Task (AUT) was used to measure divergent thinking. We expected that i) people who engage in self-enhancing humour would perform better at convergent thinking tasks than the control group and the self-defeating humour group and ii) people who engage in self-enhancing humour would perform better at divergent thinking tasks than the control group and the self-defeating humour group. Our results supported our hypotheses and suggested that self-enhancing humour induced individual creativity both in convergent or divergent thinking (originality, fluency, flexibility). In contrast, self-defeating humour failed to affect either convergent or divergent thinking.

Automatic assessment of divergent thinking in Chinese language with TransDis: A transformer-based language model approach.

Language models have been increasingly popular for automatic creativity assessment, generating semantic distances to objectively measure the quality of creative ideas. However, there is currently a lack of an automatic assessment system for evaluating creative ideas in the Chinese language. To address this gap, we developed TransDis, a scoring system using transformer-based language models, capable of providing valid originality (novelty) and flexibility (variety) scores for Alternative Uses Task (AUT) responses in Chinese. Study 1 demonstrated that the latent model-rated originality factor, comprised of three transformer-based models, strongly predicted human originality ratings, and the model-rated flexibility strongly correlated with human flexibility ratings as well. Criterion validity analyses indicated that model-rated originality and flexibility positively correlated to other creativity measures, demonstrating similar validity to human ratings. Study 2 and 3 showed that TransDis effectively distinguished participants instructed to provide creative vs. common uses (Study 2) and participants instructed to generate ideas in a flexible vs. persistent way (Study 3). Our findings suggest that TransDis can be a reliable and low-cost tool for measuring idea originality and flexibility in Chinese language, potentially paving the way for automatic creativity assessment in other languages. We offer an open platform to compute originality and flexibility for AUT responses in Chinese and over 50 other languages ( https://osf.io/59jv2/ ).

Individual differences and creative ideation: neuromodulatory signatures of mindset and response inhibition.

This study addresses the modulatory role of individual mindset in explaining the relationship between response inhibition (RI) and divergent thinking (DT) using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Forty undergraduate students (22 male and 18 female), aged between 18 and 23 years (average age = 19 years, SD = 1.48), were recruited. Participants received either anodal tDCS of the right IFG coupled with cathodal tDCS of the left IFG (R + L-; N = 19) or the opposite coupling (R-L+; N = 21). We tested DT performance using the alternative uses task (AUT), measuring participants' fluency, originality, and flexibility in the response production, as well as participants' mindsets. Furthermore, we applied a go-no-go task to examine the role of RI before and after stimulating the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) using tDCS. The results showed that the mindset levels acted as moderators on stimulation conditions and enhanced RI on AUT fluency and flexibility but not originality. Intriguingly, growth mindsets have opposite moderating effects on the change in DT, resulting from the tDCS stimulation of the left and the right IFG, with reduced fluency but enhanced flexibility. Our findings imply that understanding neural modulatory signatures of ideational processes with tDCS strongly benefits from evaluating cognitive status and control functions.

AI vs humans in the AUT: Simulations to LLMs

This paper reviews studies of proposed creative machines applied to a prototypical creative task, i.e., the Alternative Uses Task (AUT). Although one system (OROC) did simulate some aspects of human strategies for the AUT, most recent attempts have not been simulation-oriented, but rather have used Large Language Model (LLM) systems such as GPT-3 which embody extremely large connectionist networks trained on huge volumes of textual data. Studies reviewed here indicate that LLM based systems are performing on the AUT at near or somewhat above human levels in terms of scores on originality and usefulness. Moreover, similar patterns are found in the data of humans and LLM models in the AUT, such as output order effects and a negative association between originality and value or utility. However, it is concluded that GPT-3 and similar systems, despite generating novel and useful responses, do not display creativity as they lack agency and are purely algorithmic. LLM studies so far in this area have largely been exploratory and future studies should guard against possible training data contamination.

Nothing But Stereotypes? Negligible Sex Differences Across Creativity Measures in Science, Arts, and Sports Adolescent High Achievers

ABSTRACTPrevious research has focused on understanding when, why, and how sex differences in creativity occur, as results vary across samples, measures, and methodologies. In the current study we investigated sex differences in creativity among 984 high achieving adolescents in three expertise areas: Sciences, Arts, and Sports. Eight creativity indicators were analyzed: Alternative uses task (AUT) fluency; creative self‐efficacy (CSE); intraindividual strengths (difference between CSE and AUT Fluency); five self‐reported creativity scales: Self/everyday, scholarly, performance, mechanical/scientific, artistic. The results showed negligible sex differences ( = .01), with females performing better in AUT Fluency and males self‐rating their CSE higher. No sex differences were found in self/everyday, scholarly and performance creativity. Males self‐rated their mechanical/scientific creativity ( = .06) higher than females; while females self‐rated their artistic creativity ( = .02) higher in comparison to males. Our results extend the existing literature by finding negligible sex differences in adolescent expert groups. However, some stereotypical differences emerged, for example, females with Sciences expertise rated their mechanical/scientific creativity lower than males with and even without Sciences expertise. Results call for further investigation into the links between sex differences, expertise, and specific creativity domains.

The HPA and SAM axis mediate the impairment of creativity under stress.

With the ever-changing social environment, individual creativity is facing a severe challenge induced by stress. However, little is known regarding the underlying mechanisms by which acute stress affects creative cognitive processing. The current research explored the impacts of the neuroendocrine response on creativity under stress and its underlying cognitive flexibility mechanisms. The enzyme-linked immuno sorbent assay was employed to assess salivary cortisol, which acted as a marker of stress-induced activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Eye blink rate (EBR) and pupil diameter were measured as respective indicators of dopamine and noradrenaline released by the activation of the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary (SAM) axis. The Wisconsin card task (WCST) measured cognitive flexibility, while the alternative uses task (AUT) and the remote association task (RAT) measured separately divergent and convergent thinking in creativity. Results showed higher cortisol increments following acute stress induction in the stress group than control group. Ocular results showed that the stress manipulation significantly increased EBR and pupil diameter compared to controls, reflecting increased SAM activity. Further analysis revealed that stress-released cortisol impaired the originality component of the AUT, reducing cognitive flexibility as measured by perseverative errors on the WCST task. Serial mediation analyses showed that both EBR and pupil diameter were also associated with increased perseverative errors leading to poor originality on the AUT. These findings confirm that physiological arousal under stress can impair divergent thinking through the regulation of different neuroendocrine pathways, in which the deterioration of flexible switching plays an important mediating role.

The dual effect of background music on creativity: perspectives of music preference and cognitive interference.

Music, an influential environmental factor, significantly shapes cognitive processing and everyday experiences, thus rendering its effects on creativity a dynamic topic within the field of cognitive science. However, debates continue about whether music bolsters, obstructs, or exerts a dual influence on individual creativity. Among the points of contention is the impact of contrasting musical emotions-both positive and negative-on creative tasks. In this study, we focused on traditional Chinese music, drawn from a culture known for its 'preference for sadness,' as our selected emotional stimulus and background music. This choice, underrepresented in previous research, was based on its uniqueness. We examined the effects of differing music genres (including vocal and instrumental), each characterized by a distinct emotional valence (positive or negative), on performance in the Alternative Uses Task (AUT). To conduct this study, we utilized an affective arousal paradigm, with a quiet background serving as a neutral control setting. A total of 114 participants were randomly assigned to three distinct groups after completing a music preference questionnaire: instrumental, vocal, and silent. Our findings showed that when compared to a quiet environment, both instrumental and vocal music as background stimuli significantly affected AUT performance. Notably, music with a negative emotional charge bolstered individual originality in creative performance. These results lend support to the dual role of background music in creativity, with instrumental music appearing to enhance creativity through factors such as emotional arousal, cognitive interference, music preference, and psychological restoration. This study challenges conventional understanding that only positive background music boosts creativity and provides empirical validation for the two-path model (positive and negative) of emotional influence on creativity.