Thinking Tasks Research Articles

Do students motivated to learn have better creative abilities?

Despite the key role that motivation plays in the creative process— with respect to engaging with content, exploring, and learning—, surprisingly few studies have investigated the relationship between academic motivation and indicators of creativity. The objective of the current study was to clarify this relationship. More specifically, we examined the role of openness to experience and academic motivation in relation to subjective and objective indicators of creative abilities. We hypothesized that openness to experience would predict greater intrinsic academic motivation, which in turn would predict better divergent thinking abilities and self-ratings in academic activities. Regression and mediation analyses with a sample of 279 college students supported the hypothesis that openness to experience was positively associated with intrinsic academic motivation. In turn, intrinsic academic motivation was related to higher creative self-ratings in academically related activities, but not to better divergent thinking abilities. Additionally, controlled academic motivation was associated with poorer divergent thinking abilities. We discuss the place of creative abilities in education and the distinction between a motivation to explore and a motivation to learn within the academic context. Educational relevance statementThis paper examined the role of openness to experience and academic motivation toward the creative abilities of a population of university students. The results suggested that students with greater motivation to learn in school had no better creative abilities, as measured with divergent thinking tasks, but perceived themselves as more creative in academically related activities. This study has implications for the relationship between motivation and creative abilities in education.

Inner speech as a brain mechanism for preconditioning creativity process

The current domain of creativity studies is characterized by a high diversity of psychological and neuroscience techniques and methods researchers use. However, the role of verbal processes, especially inner speech, remains underrepresented in this area. Existing studies point to the heterogeneity of inner speech brain mechanisms involved in creative thinking. While consciously controlled verbalized thoughts are associated with the activity of task-dependent brain networks (TPN), especially lateral-frontoparietal network (L-FPN), non-voluntary, mind-wandering thoughts are supposed to correlate with default-mode networks (DMN) activity. While DMN activity leads to an increased number of creative ideas, L-FPN activity results in fewer ideas but increased idea originality. From this point, rest state and state of getting prepared (preconditioning) to task completion, when both mind-wandering and control thoughts occur, are of specific interest. In our study, 49 volunteers completed divergent thinking tasks with rest state and preconditioning state preceded. We later divided all participants into two groups – with low and high creativity levels based on their performance during divergent tasks. EEG was recorded during rest state and preconditioning state and analyzed based on power spectrum and sLORETA data. Our results show an essential role of preconditioning alpha-2 EEG subband in creative thinking performance. The originality of the task solution correlates with the activity of L-FPN structures, while DMN activity does not differ significantly between the two groups. Disclosure statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

CHRONOBIOLOGY IN DIVERGENT THINKING: HOW DESIGNERS ARE AFFECTED BY TIME OF DAY

AbstractChronobiology is the science that studies the role of time in biology. The study of time in human bodies revealed the presence of internal rhythms related to the time of day. Considering divergent thinking as one of the essential cognitive activities of conceptual design, this paper presents the results of investigating the effect of time of day on designers’ brain activity while performing divergent thinking tasks. An experiment was run with a revised Alternative Uses Task, measuring brain activity with an electroencephalogram (EEG) device. Students with different educational backgrounds were recruited for this experiment, including engineering and industrial design students, to determine if the time of day affected them differently. The brain waves and related power results show significant differences with respect to the time of day and educational background. The differences are particularly evident considering the interaction of these factors. Further studies are required to understand the relationship between the differences detected and the designers’ behavioural performance and to identify which time of day is most effective for idea-generation activities for designers.

Parents and children s learning when collaborating on inquiry-based mathematics and computational thinking tasks

Parents and children s learning when collaborating on inquiry-based mathematics and computational thinking tasks

Creative or not? Hierarchical diffusion modeling of the creative evaluation process.

When producing creative ideas (i.e., ideas that are original and useful) two main processes occur: ideation, where people brainstorm ideas, and evaluation, where they decide if the ideas are creative or not. While much is known about the ideation phase, the cognitive processes involved in creativity evaluation are less clear. In this article, we present a novel modeling approach for the evaluation phase of creativity. We apply the drift diffusion model (DDM) to the Creative-or-Not task (CON-task) to study the cognitive basis of evaluation and to examine individual differences in the extent to which people take originality and utility into account when evaluating creative ideas. The CON-task is a timed decision-making task where participants indicate whether they find uses for certain objects creative or not (e.g., using a book as a buoy). The different uses vary on the two creativity dimensions "originality" and "utility." In two studies (n = 293, 17,806 trials; n = 152, 9,291 trials), we found that stimulus originality was strongly related to participants' drift rates but found only weak evidence for an association between stimulus utility and the drift rate. However, participants differed substantially in the effects of originality and utility. Furthermore, the implicit weights assigned to originality and utility on the CON-task were associated with self-reported importance ratings of originality and utility and with divergent thinking performance in the Alternative Uses task (AUT). This research provides a cognitive modeling approach to creativity evaluation and underlines the importance of communicating rating criteria in divergent thinking tasks to ensure a fair assessment of creative ability. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Age-related changes in creative thinking during late childhood: The contribution of cooperative learning

Creative thinking has been considered a human skill that is necessary for facing challenging situations that require adaptive solutions. From an educational perspective, creative thinking plays an important role in learning processes and is an issue of central importance within classroom methodology. In this regard, Cooperative learning (CL) has been studied as a methodology that enhances creative processes. CL methodology refers to teaching procedures based on organizing the class into small mixed-abilities groups where students work cooperatively to complete academic tasks and consolidate their learning. However, the impact of CL on creative thinking seems to have been insufficiently explored in late childhood, which is known as a transitory stage between childhood and adolescence. Using two tests (at 5th and 6th grades of Primary School), we examined the trajectory of creative thinking in fifty-three students from two different schools. Students were assessed by a divergent thinking task (CREA Test; Corbalán et al., 2015) at two time points: Test-1 (T1), with a mean age of 9.81 years (Sd= 0.48), and Test-2 (T2), with a mean age of 11.35 years (Sd= 0.52). Given the differences in methodology delivered in each school (Cooperative and individualistic learning), we also analyzed the effects of this variable on student creative thinking performance. We found significant improvements between testing in the two schools, although CL appeared to have a more positive effect than IL on creative thinking performance. Our finding highlights the importance of studying classroom methodology as a mediating factor in creative thinking development, which could be important in the learning processes as well as the integral development of the child.

0071 Individual Differences in Sleep Duration and Creative Thinking on the Remote Associates Test

Abstract Introduction Short sleep has been shown to affect attention, processing speed, and memory. Creative cognition, including convergent thinking (e.g., identifying remote connections), has received less attention in the sleep literature. In four studies, we examined individual differences in sleep duration relative to performance on a convergent thinking task in which participants view three words (sore-should-sweat) and have to identify a target word that connects them (cold). Based on the literature on sleep deprivation and attention/memory, we hypothesized that short sleepers would show lower convergent thinking performance. By contrast, based on the view that convergent thinking is reflective of fluid intelligence—a higher-order cognitive construct that is resilient to sleep deprivation—short sleep should be unrelated to convergent thinking performance. Methods Participants were 551 adults aged 18-30 who were recruited across four experiments. Each experiment compared performance on a traditional 3-item compound Remote Associates Test to performance on a modified approach that provided additional semantic information (4-item Remote-Associates Test). After each experiment, participants were asked to indicate the duration of their previous night of sleep. Results Participants performed 27% better on the 4-item version, relative to the traditional 3-item Remote Associates Test (p<.001). There were no statistically significant associations between sleep duration and performance accuracy on the 3-item or 4-item compound Remote Associates Tests (rs<.10, ps > .05). This pattern was observed within each experiment, as well as when the data were collapsed across experiments. In addition, there were no significant associations when comparing extreme sleep durations (< 5 hours to ≥8 hours; all ps > .05). Conclusion Individual differences in recent sleep duration were not related to individual differences in convergent thinking abilities. These findings are consistent with the view of convergent thinking as a marker of fluid intelligence. Experimental work is needed to determine whether convergent thinking is fully resistant to sleep deprivation and to examine generalizability to other creative processes (e.g., divergent thinking, imagination). Support (if any) National Science Foundation (1920730)

Memory and creativity: A meta-analytic examination of the relationship between memory systems and creative cognition.

Increasing evidence suggests that specific memory systems (e.g., semantic vs. episodic) may support specific creative thought processes. However, there are a number of inconsistencies in the literature regarding the strength, direction, and influence of different memory (semantic, episodic, working, and short-term) and creativity (divergent and convergent thinking) types, as well as the influence of external factors (age, stimuli modality) on this purported relationship. In this meta-analysis, we examined 525 correlations from 79 published studies and unpublished datasets, representing data from 12,846 individual participants. We found a small but significant (r = .19) correlation between memory and creative cognition. Among semantic, episodic, working, and short-term memory, all correlations were significant, but semantic memory - particularly verbal fluency, the ability to strategically retrieve information from long-term memory - was found to drive this relationship. Further, working memory capacity was found to be more strongly related to convergent than divergent creative thinking. We also found that within visual creativity, the relationship with visual memory was greater than that of verbal memory, but within verbal creativity, the relationship with verbal memory was greater than that of visual memory. Finally, the memory-creativity correlation was larger for children compared to young adults despite no impact of age on the overall effect size. These results yield three key conclusions: (1) semantic memory supports both verbal and nonverbal creative thinking, (2) working memory supports convergent creative thinking, and (3) the cognitive control of memory is central to performance on creative thinking tasks.

Investigating the Effectiveness of Peer Feedback in Developing Critical Thinking Skills in Undergraduate Students

The purpose of this research was to determine whether or not undergraduates benefitted from receiving input from their peers when it came to the development of their critical thinking skills. A total of 60 freshmen taking an introductory philosophy course at a major public university in the United States served as the study's sample for a pre-test, post-test control group design. Students in the experimental group had their critical thinking tasks reviewed by their peers, while those in the control group did not. Changes in critical thinking were measured using the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST). The results of the CCTST showed that the experimental group had significantly higher levels of critical thinking than the control group. This result demonstrates the potential of peer feedback as an instructional strategy for fostering critical thinking in undergraduates. Student access to chances for group study is also highlighted. These results have substantial repercussions for classroom practice. Peer feedback is a useful tool for teachers to help their pupils develop the critical thinking skills necessary for success in school and the workplace. Important social and cognitive skills, such as communication, collaboration, and critical thinking, can be fostered in students through collaborative learning tasks.

Sensorimotor cortex activity during basketball dribbling and its relation to creativity.

Previous studies suggest that it is possible to influence creative performance, by increasing the level of activity in one of the brains hemispheres through unilateral hand movements. Stronger right-hemispheric brain activation due to left-hand movement is assumed to promote creative performance. In this study the aim was to replicate these effects and to expand previous findings, by incorporating a more advanced motor task. 43 right-handed participants were asked to dribble a basketball with the right (n = 22) or left hand (n = 21), respectively. During dribbling the brain activity was monitored over the sensorimotor cortex bilaterally using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). By investigating two groups (left-hand dribbling vs. right-hand dribbling) and by conducting a pre-/posttest design for measuring creative performance (verbal as well as figural divergent thinking tasks), effects of both left- and right-hemispheric activation on creative performance were examined. The results show that creative performance could not be modulated through basketball dribbling. Yet the analysis of the brain activation patterns in the sensorimotor cortex during dribbling revealed findings that largely correspond to the results on hemispherical activation differences during complex motor tasks. Higher cortical activation in the left hemisphere, relative to the right hemisphere, during right-hand dribbling, as well as higher bilateral cortical activation during left-hand dribbling, compared to right-hand dribbling was observed. The results of a linear discriminant analysis further revealed that high group classification accuracy could be achieved using sensorimotor activity data. While we were not able to replicate effects of unilateral hand movements on creative performance, our results reveal new insights into the functioning of sensorimotor brain regions during advanced movement.

Don't throw the “bad” ideas away! Multidimensional top scoring increases reliability of divergent thinking tasks.

Don't throw the “bad” ideas away! Multidimensional top scoring increases reliability of divergent thinking tasks.

Mapping the neural mechanisms of creativity by convergent and divergent thinking in school-aged children: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study

Creativity is essential to children's learning, career development and well-being. Divergent and convergent thinking are the central components of creativity, which is a compound high-order cognitive ability. However, most existing behavioral and neuroimaging studies have only tested the characteristics of a single component of creativity. The neurological mechanism of creativity from the construct of divergent and convergent thinking needs to be explored by a more comprehensive approach.In this functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) study, we investigated neural activity in 69 school-aged children while they worked on creative tasks involving divergent and convergent thinking. Their divergent and convergent thinking abilities were evaluated using the Alternate Uses Task (AUT) and Remote Association Task (RAT), respectively.When working with a divergent thinking task, we found that neural activation was higher in the middle frontal gyrus (MFG) than when working with a convergent thinking task. In addition, a significant positive correlation was found between HbO activation in the MFG and performance on the divergent thinking task, while a significant positive correlation was found between HbO activation in the inferior parietal lobule (IPL) and performance on the convergent thinking task.These results suggest different neural mechanisms of the two main components of creativity. Divergent thinking may be modulated more by top-down executive control networks during the idea generation stage. In contrast, convergent thinking may be modulated more by integrating semantic information into coherent representations during the idea selection stage. Our study contributes toward the theoretical integration of the complex structure of creativity. We also provide neural evidence showing that divergent and convergent thinking may be modulated by idea generation and the selection process of creative thinking.

Brain Connectivity-Based Prediction of Combining Remote Semantic Associates for Creative Thinking

ABSTRACT Associative thinking plays a major role in creativity, as it involves the ability to link distant concepts. Yet, the neural mechanisms allowing to combine distant associates in creative thinking tasks remain poorly understood. We investigated the whole-brain functional connectivity patterns related to combining remote associations for creative thinking. Using a connectome predictive modeling approach, we examined whole-brain functional connectivity patterns related to connecting close and distant remote associates in the Combination Association Task (CAT). Brain connectivity networks predicting CAT performance showed contributions from brain functional connectivity mostly related to the Default Mode Network, likely related to associative processes required in all trials of the task. Besides, the functional connectivity pattern of associative remoteness linked to CAT trials also largely involved the Executive Control Network, Dorsal Attention Network and Somatomotor networks, suggesting that more controlled processes played an important role in trials with higher associative remoteness. Critically, the functional connectivity patterns related to higher creative demands of the task share similarities with functional connectivity patterns previously found to predict divergent thinking. Thus, our work potentially offers insights into neural mechanisms that play a role in both convergent and divergent remote thinking.

Is running a state of mind? Sports training as a potential method for developing cognitive flexibility

The study aimed to test the significance of sports participation as a potential means of improving cognitive function, particularly cognitive flexibility. Based on the characteristics of orienteering, such as frequent changes of behavioural strategies in response to changes in the situation or the simultaneous performance of several mental activities, we assumed that practising this sport could foster the development of cognitive flexibility. Two groups of volunteers were compared: 50 middle and long-distance runners and 50 orienteering runners in terms of their performance on the following measures of cognitive flexibility: a divergent thinking task, a computer flexibility task, Cognitive Flexibility Scale, and Verbal Fluency Test as a measure of executive function. Orienteering runners outperformed others on all measures except the Cognitive Flexibility Scale. Furthermore, we found that training characteristics (regularity, frequency, participation in competitions) were associated with levels of cognitive flexibility, particularly among orienteering runners, where they explained between 38% and 39% of the overall flexibility variance. Our results suggest that cognitive flexibility can be developed through sports training requiring effective dealing in a changing, complex environment. We also discuss the implications of our results for cognitive training research.

Dissociated deficits of anticipated and experienced regret in at-risk suicidal individuals.

Decision-making deficits have been reported as trans-diagnostic characteristics of vulnerability to suicidal behaviors, independent of co-existing psychiatric disorders. Individuals with suicidal behaviors often regret their decision to attempt suicide and may have impairments in future-oriented processing. However, it is not clear how people with suicidal dispositions use future-oriented cognition and past experience of regret to guide decision-making. Here, we examined the processes of regret anticipation and experience in subclinical youth with and without suicidal ideation during value-based decision-making. In total, 80 young adults with suicidal ideation and 79 healthy controls completed a computational counterfactual thinking task and self-reported measures of suicidal behaviors, depression, anxiety, impulsivity, rumination, hopelessness, and childhood maltreatment. Individuals with suicidal ideation showed a reduced ability to anticipate regret compared to healthy controls. Specifically, suicidal ideators' experience of regret/relief was significantly different from that of healthy controls upon obtained outcomes, while their disappointment/pleasure experience was not significantly different from healthy controls. These findings suggest that young adults with suicidal ideation have difficulty predicting the consequences or the future value of their behavior. Individuals with suicidal ideation showed impairments in value comparison and flat affect to retrospective rewards, whereas individuals with high suicidality showed blunted affect to immediate rewards. Identifying the counterfactual decision-making characteristics of at-risk suicidal individuals may help to elucidate measurable markers of suicidal vulnerability and identify future intervention targets.

On the Generalizability of the Bodily State Effect on Creativity

ABSTRACT Previous studies found that bodily states have an impact on divergent thinking, but it remains to be seen how generalizable this effect could be, how exactly it depends on cognitive control, and whether similar effects can be found on convergent thinking. To address these questions, we examined the bodily state effect on divergent thinking, convergent thinking, and cognitive control in two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants performed the Alternate Uses Task, the Remote Associates Task, and an auditory Stroop task under one of the three bodily states: sitting, standing, or roaming. In Experiment 2, participants completed the three tasks while standing and while roaming. Results showed that bodily state had no significant effect on divergent thinking and the Stroop effect, while roaming shorten the reaction times (Experiment 1) and increased accuracy (Experiment 2) comparing with sitting or standing in the convergent thinking task. Bayesian analysis provided strong or moderately strong evidence for the null hypothesis for these effects. Taken together, the present experiments showed no stable bodily state effect on divergent thinking or convergent thinking and Stroop effect. Possible explanations for the discrepancy between the current results and those reported in previous studies were discussed.

Actively Open-Minded Thinking and Its Measurement.

Actively open-minded thinking (AOT) is measured by items that tap the willingness to consider alternative opinions, sensitivity to evidence contradictory to current beliefs, the willingness to postpone closure, and reflective thought. AOT scales are strong predictors of performance on heuristics and biases tasks and of the avoidance of reasoning traps such as superstitious thinking and belief in conspiracy theories. Nevertheless, AOT is most commonly measured with questionnaires rather than performance indicators. Questionnaire contamination becomes even more of a danger as the AOT concept is expanded into new areas such as the study of fake news, misinformation, ideology, and civic attitudes. We review our 25-year history of studying the AOT concept and developing our own AOT scale. We present a 13-item scale that both is brief and accommodates many previous criticisms and refinements. We include a discussion of why AOT scales are such good predictors of performance on heuristics and biases tasks. We conclude that it is because such scales tap important processes of cognitive decoupling and decontextualization that modernity increasingly requires. We conclude by discussing the paradox that although AOT scales are potent predictors of performance on most rational thinking tasks, they do not predict the avoidance of myside thinking, even though it is virtually the quintessence of the AOT concept.

The effect of cognitive behavioral therapy on future thinking in patients with major depressive disorder: A randomized controlled trial.

Pessimistic thinking about the future is one of the cardinal symptoms of major depression. Few studies have assessed changes in pessimistic thinking after undergoing cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). A randomized clinical trial (RCT) was conducted with patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) to determine whether receiving a course of CBT affects pessimistic future thinking using a future thinking task. Thirty-one patients with MDD were randomly assigned to either CBT (n = 16) or a talking control (TC) (n = 15) for a 16-week intervention. The main outcomes were the change in response time (RT) and the ratio of the responses for positive valence, measured by the future thinking task. Secondary outcomes included the GRID-Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II), the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS), and the word fluency test (WFT). Regarding the main outcomes, the CBT group showed reduced RT for the positive valence (within-group Cohen's d = 0.7, p = 0.012) and negative valence (within-group Cohen's d = 0.6, p = 0.03) in the distant future condition. The ratio of positive valence responses in both groups for all temporal conditions except for the distant past condition increased within group (distant future: CBT: Cohen's d = 0.5, p = 0.04; TC: Cohen's d = 0.8, p = 0.008; near future: CBT: Cohen's d = 1.0, p < 0.001; TC: Cohen's d = 1.1, p = 0.001; near past: CBT: Cohen's d = 0.8, p = 0.005; TC: Cohen's d = 1.0, p = 0.002). As for secondary outcomes, the CBT group showed greater improvement than the TC group regarding the need for social approval as measured by the DAS (p = 0.012). Patients with MDD who received CBT showed a reduced RT for the positive and negative valence in the distant future condition. RT in the future thinking task for depressed patients may be a potential objective measure for the CBT treatment process. Because the present RCT is positioned as a pilot RCT, a confirmatory trial with a larger number of patients is warranted to elucidate the CBT treatment process that influences future thinking. https://center6.umin.ac.jp/cgi-open-bin/icdr_e/ctr_view.cgi?recptno=R000021028, identifier UMIN000018155.

Beyond the Confines of Achievement in Secondary School Biology: Higher-order thinking in Focus

Thinking at a rate higher than memorizing ideas or recalling verbatim what was learned in the previous lessons is a challenging task in teaching and learning biological concepts. Past studies have established many strategies to address this, but they are not directly linked to the ultimate solution to the problem. This study investigates the potency of problem-solving strategy to enhance student’s ability in higher-order thinking tasks in biology. A total of 118 senior secondary two biology students in their intact group participated in the study. The study employed a quasi-experimental group design. Data on higher-order thinking tasks were collected using 20 multiple-choice items titled Achievement Test in Higher-order Thinking Tasks (ATHOTT). Mean and standard deviation depicted in bar charts provide answers to the three research questions, while analysis of covariance was employed to test the hypotheses. The results revealed that problem-solving strategy enhanced students’ response to higher-order thinking tasks, male and female students did not differ in response to higher-order thinking tasks, and gender did not mediate with the problem-solving strategy to enhance students’ response to higher-order thinking tasks in biology. Teachers are, therefore, implored to engage students in problem-solving activities.

Influence of Analytic Processing on Divergent and Convergent Thinking Tasks: The Role of Rational and Experiential Thinking Styles

Scientific interest in the relationship between analytic processing and creativity has increased in recent years. However, there is conflicting evidence on whether analytic processing reduces or enhances creativity. We hypothesize that differences in creativity measurement paradigms (divergent or convergent thinking tasks) and the research orientation of analytic processing (dispositional or situational) may explain the conflicting findings. The present study aims to investigate how priming analytic processing affects individuals' performance on divergent and convergent thinking tasks and the moderating role of thinking styles. In Study 1 (N = 155), participants were assigned to either an analytic processing group or a control group and performed convergent thinking (Remote Associates Task) and divergent thinking (Alternative Uses Test) tasks after priming. In Study 2 (N = 119), we conducted a priming paradigm of analytic processing that differed from Study 1, and a personal experiential-rational thinking style was introduced as a moderator. Results showed that priming analytic processing promoted convergent thinking performance but decreased fluency and flexibility scores on the divergent thinking task (Study 1). Notably, the effect of priming analytic processing on divergent thinking performance was significant only for participants with higher levels of rational thinking style (Study 2). These results suggest that thinking styles and dimensions of creativity should be considered in the relationship between analytic processing and creativity.