Anagram Problem Solving Research Articles

Effects of Verbal Priming With Acute Exercise on Convergent Creativity.

The acute effects of moderate-intensity treadmill exercise during anagram problem solving on subsequent creativity performance has yet to be empirically investigated, which was this study's purpose. A two-visit (counterbalanced order), within-subject experiment was conducted among individuals aged 18-35. For the acute exercise visit, participants engaged in a 15-minute bout of moderate-intensity treadmill exercise while solving anagram problems. For the anagram only visit, participants engaged in 15 minutes of seated rest while solving anagram problems. Average RAT performance was higher for the exercise + anagram problem-solving visit (M = 10.51, SD = 3.25) compared to anagram-solving + seated rest (M = 9.29, SD = 4.12). The difference between conditions was statistically significant, t(44) = 2.385, p = .021, Cohen's d = 0.36. These findings demonstrate that acute exercise coupled with anagram problem-solving, prior to RAT completion, is a potential strategy for enhancing verbal convergent creative thinking.

The effect of true and false unreportable hints on anagram problem solving, restructuring, and the Aha!-experience

ABSTRACT We investigated the role of representational change and unconscious processing in Aha!-experience using a new experimental paradigm. Participants solved anagrams containing a word shorter than the solution by one letter. We used true (related to solutions) and false (related to short words) pictorial hints presented for 1000 ms or 17 ms (reportable/unreportable hints) to manipulate solvers’ representation. Reportable and unreportable true hints increased the probability of the correct solution and decreased the response time, while reportable and unreportable false hints increased the probability of specific intrusion errors (short words) but had no effect on the response time. Contrary to the representational change and unconscious processing accounts, neither reportable false hints nor unreportable true hints led to higher Aha!-experience ratings. Solutions of anagrams presented without hints received the highest Aha!-experience ratings. The results support the usefulness of the paradigm for insight problem research, and raise questions about the nature of Aha!-experiences.

Why expressive suppression does not pay? Cognitive costs of negative emotion suppression: The mediating role of subjective tense-arousal

Abstract The aim of this paper was to contribute to a broader understanding of the cognitive consequences of expressive suppression. Specifically, we examined whether the deteriorating effect of expressive suppression on cognitive functioning is caused by tense arousal enhanced by suppression. Two experiments were performed in order to test this prediction. In both studies we tested the effect of expressive suppression on working memory, as measured with a backwards digit-span task (Study 1, N = 43) and anagram problem-solving task (Study 2, N = 60). In addition, in Study 2 we tested whether expressive suppression degrades memory of the events that emerged during the period of expressive suppression. Both studies were conducted in a similar design: Participants watched a film clip which evoked negative emotions (i.e. disgust in Study 1 and a combination of sadness and anxiety in Study 2) under the instruction to suppress those negative emotions or (in the control condition) to simply watch the film. The results of these experiments lead to three conclusions. First, the results reveal that expressive suppression degrades memory of the events that emerged during the period of expressive suppression and leads to poorer performance on working memory tasks, as measured with a backwards digit-span task and anagram problem-solving task. Second, the results indicate that expressive suppression leads to a significant increase in subjective tense arousal. Third, the results support our prediction that expressive suppression decreases cognitive performance through its effects on subjective tense arousal. The results of the Study 1 show that tense arousal activated during expressive suppression of disgust fully mediates the negative effect of suppression on working memory as measured with a backwards digit-span task. The results of Study 2 reveal that subjective tense arousal elicited while suppressing sadness and anxiety mediates both the effect of suppression on working memory - as measured with the anagram task - and memory of the events that occurred during the period of suppression.

The Einstellung effect in anagram problem solving: evidence from eye movements.

The Einstellung effect is the counterintuitive finding that prior experience or domain-specific knowledge can under some circumstances interfere with problem solving performance. This effect has been demonstrated in several domains of expertise including medicine and chess. In the present study we explored this effect in the context of a simplified anagram problem solving task. Participants solved anagram problems while their eye movements were monitored. Each problem consisted of six letters: a central three-letter string whose letters were part of the solution word, and three additional individual letters. Participants were informed that one of the individual letters was a distractor letter and were asked to find a five-letter solution word. In order to examine the impact of stimulus familiarity on problem solving performance and eye movements, the central letter string was presented either as a familiar three-letter word, or the letters were rearranged to form a three-letter nonword. Replicating the classic Einstellung effect, overall performance was better for nonword than word trials. However, participants’ eye movements revealed a more complex pattern of both interference and facilitation as a function of the familiarity of the central letter string. Specifically, word trials resulted in shorter viewing times on the central letter string and longer viewing times on the individual letters than nonword trials. These findings suggest that while participants were better able to encode and maintain the meaningful word stimuli in working memory, they found it more challenging to integrate the individual letters into the central letter string when it was presented as a word.

Cognitive flexibility across the sleep–wake cycle: REM-sleep enhancement of anagram problem solving

Flexible or ‘fluid’ cognitive processes are regarded as fundamental to problem solving and creative ability, requiring a specific neurophysiological milieu. REM-sleep dreaming is associated with creative processes and abstract reasoning with increased strength of weak associations in cognitive networks. REM sleep is also mediated by a distinctive neurophysiological profile, different to that of wake and NREM sleep. This study compared the performance of 16 subjects on a test of cognitive flexibility using anagram word puzzles following REM and NREM awakenings across the night, and waking performances during the day. REM awakenings provided a significant 32% advantage in the number of anagrams solved compared with NREM awakenings and was equal to that of wake time trials. Correlations of individual performance profiles suggest that REM sleep may offer a different mode of problem solving compared with wake and NREM. When early and late REM and NREM awakening data were separated, a dissociation was evident, with NREM task performance becoming more REM-like later in the night, while REM performance remained constant. These data suggest that the neurophysiology of REM sleep represents a brain state more amenable to flexible cognitive processing than NREM and different from that in wake, and may offer insights into the neurocognitive properties of REM-sleep dreaming.

A demonstration of incubation in anagram problem solving

The present study attempted to show that longer periods of incubation would lead to an increased facilitation of anagram problem solving. The break between the presentation of anagrams was 0 sec, 20 min, or 24 h. It was found that longer breaks increased the probability that an anagram would be solved. These results suggest that solving anagrams may be a useful task for pursuing studies of incubation.

Hemisphericity and problem-solving ability.

149 freshmen undergraduates were administered the Higher Information Processing Scale and an anagram problem-solving task. Single-solution anagrams were chosen from lists of age-appropriate vocabulary words high in concrete imagery or low in imagery (abstract). Small but significant correlations were obtained between number of concrete anagrams solved and right- and integrated-hemispheric preference scores, respectively. Students categorized as "integrated preference" solved more high-imagery anagrams than any other group. Results lend support to the hypothesis that brain hemisphere specializations may exist but integration of the hemispheres may yield best performance.

Interactions of Manifest Anxiety score with anagram letter transition probability and Thorndike-Lorge frequency of solution word.

In an experiment designed for further exploration of the effects of manifest anxiety upon anagram problem solving, two levels each of manifest anxiety score, letter transition probability of anagram, and Thorndike-Lorge frequency of solution word were factorially combined (N = 40 male and 40 female freshmen and sophomores). While corroborating the previous findings that anagram solving rate is positively related to solution word frequency and negatively related to anagram letter transition probability, the results have demonstrated a significant interaction of solution word frequency, though not of anagram letter transition probability, with manifest anxiety score. This interaction, as shown in the facilitative effect of manifest anxiety with anagrams derived from high-frequency words and the inhibitory effect with anagrams derived from low-frequency words, is consistent with Taylor's interpretation that manifest anxiety, as an emotionally based drive, multiplicatively interacts with habit strength.

Determinants of anagram problem solution in adulthood.

An evaluation of the indices proposed in the literature regarding measures of anagram difficulty was made by asking three groups (ages 17-26, 39-51, 59-76) of adults (n = 54) to solve a list of 30 anagrams. Results indicated that only two of these indices (Thorndike-Lorge and Bigram Rank measures) significantly predicted frequency of solution in samples beyong college age. It was also found that the cognitive variable mediating the effects of these indices in middle aged and elderly subjects was crystallized ability, suggesting an experiential basis for the effects of both task and organismic variables as determinants of anagram problem solving in adulthood. The role of fluid ability as a mediator of problem solution in the young received limited support.

Physiological patterns accompanying complex problem solving during warning and nonwarning conditions.

Physiological responses of 48 subjects were studied during both a warning and a nonwarning condition and during anagram problem solving. The warning condition was associated with heart rate deceleration and increased occurrence of galvanic skin responses (GSR), of skin conductance, and of tonic galvanic skin potentials (GSP). The warning condition also resulted in significantly faster solution rates. Problem solving was associated with increases in heart rate, occurrence of GSR, and skin conductance. The occurrence of phasic GSP habituated, but the occurrence of tonic GSP maintained a significant response frequency. Large increases in tonic GSP, with minimal phasic increases during problem solving, reflected the bidimensionality of electrodermal activity as a function of the task. These findings were interpreted to support Lacey's hypothesis of response fractionation and suggest the utility of physiological measures in the study of putative attentional functioning.

Personality correlates of anagram problem solving.

Summary The relationship between personality and problem solving was studied by correlating anagram-solving performance with the 15 motivational traits measured by the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule. The results revealed a clear-cut pattern of relationships in which significant positive correlations were obtained between the socially oriented needs of Affiliation, Succorance, Nurturance, and Heterosexuality, while significant negative correlations were obtained for Deference, Intraception, and Endurance. The findings suggest that anagram solving is more sensitive to the socially oriented rather than the nonsocial needs of the solver, and that Endurance shows promise as a measure of problem-solving rigidity.

A Consideration of the Task Difficulty in the Anagram Problem Solving

A Consideration of the Task Difficulty in the Anagram Problem Solving

Effects of prior serial learning of solution words upon anagram problem solving. II. A serial position effect.

Effects of prior serial learning of solution words upon anagram problem solving. II. A serial position effect.

Developmental determinants of word and nonsense anagram solution

Solution-time differences for word and nonsense anagrams occur for 5-letter but not 3- or 4-letter anagrams. Word and nonsense solution-time differences are found for 12- and 14-year-old Ss but not for Ss 8 and 10 years old. With greater anagram lengths, performance of younger Ss becomes more clearly differentiated from that of older Ss. A dual-process developmental theory of anagram problem-solving is offered to account for the date.

Word and nonsense anagram solution with tachistoscopic stimulus presentation

Word and nonsense anagram stimuli were tachistoscopically presented (1 sec., ½ sec.), in two presentation orders, to four groups totalling 80 Ss. Word anagrams took longer to solve than nonsense anagrams. There was also a significant interaction between exposure time and presentation order. The results are interpreted as supporting a cognitive analysis of anagram problem solving.

Solving words as anagrams: A re-examined issue examined

Mayzner & Tresselt's (1956) study of nonsense and word anagram solution time which uses a single set of solution words was replicated. Different results were obtained. The discrepancy is attributed in part to the method of computing solution times. The conclusion that word anagrams take long­ er to solve than nonsense anagrams still appears valid(Beilin { Horn, 1962). The differential difficulty of nonsense and word anagram problem solving has been examined in several studies. Recently, Beilin & Horn (1962) reported evi­ dence that word anagrams are significantly more diffi­ cult than nonsense anagrams. These findings were attributed to either stimulus word perseveration or organizational effects unrelated to summed transition probabilities or letter arrangements. These results were confirmed by Ekstrand & Dominowski (1965) employing the same methodology. A different explanation of the results is offered, however. More recently, Mayzner & Tresselt (1965) report in this journal an attempt to re-examine the issue. They feel that by using a single sample of solution words, from which word and nonsense anagram stimuli are derived, that a potentially more sensitive method fo~ contrasting word and nonsense anagram problem sol ving is obtained than from the Beilin-Horn method. In the latter approach two different samples of problems were equated along significant dimensions. On the basis of a test of the common solution word method, Mayzner and Tresselt conclude that no difference between nonsense and word anagrams exists and an explanation is proposed based upon an S-R mediational model. The present report is of a replication of the Mayzner and Tresselt study with an analYSis of their procedure and results. Method An attempt was made to conduct the study in the man­ ner reported by Mayzner and Tresselt although their data actually derive from two different investigations. In the nonsense anagram part, Ss were presented with eight test problems. Each problem consisted of a five­ letter nonsense anagram to which there were two solu­ tions, with S instructed to find both solutions within a 240 sec. time limit. Although solution times forboth solution-words were calculated only the solution time for the appropriate solution word .... was used for analysis purposes (italics added). As is evident, the SOlUtion worn may be given firsfor second. Mayzner and Tresselt ignore the generation order of the solution word. When the correct solution word comes second, they give no

TEST-ANXIETY LEVEL, HEART RATE, AND ANAGRAM PROBLEM SOLVING.

TEST-ANXIETY LEVEL, HEART RATE, AND ANAGRAM PROBLEM SOLVING.

An Exploratory Study of Mediational Responses in Anagram Problem Solving

An Exploratory Study of Mediational Responses in Anagram Problem Solving

Transition probability effects in anagram problem solving.

Transition probability effects in anagram problem solving.