内外向者幽默加工进程差异:ERP研究

本研究采用事件相关电位技术(ERP),探究幽默的加工进程及内外向者在加工进程中的差异。研究以笑话为实验材料,要求被试先浏览背景信息和妙句结尾,然后评估先后呈现的文字材料的关系。行为结果:内向者的反应时显著短于外向者。ERP结果:(1)幽默加工过程包括不一致探测阶段、不一致消解阶段和情绪加工阶段。(2)不一致无关的N400波幅显著大于一致不可笑;不一致无关的P600波幅显著小于不一致可笑和一致不可笑;800ms之后不一致可笑引发了比一致不可笑和不一致无关更大的正波幅。(3)内外向者在幽默加工进程上的差异主要体现在幽默加工阶段的早期。与内向者相比,外向者在幽默不一致探测阶段所用的认知资源较少,加工的自动化程度较高。     

Differentiation of stages in joke comprehension: Evidence from an ERP study

This study aimed to investigate the mechanisms underlying joke comprehension using event‐related potentials (ERPs). Fourteen healthy college students were presented with the context of a story without its joke or nonjoke ending, and then, when the story ending was presented, they were asked to make a funny/unfunny judgment about these endings. The behavioral results showed that there was no significant difference between funny and unfunny items, which meant that subjects could understand funny items as easily as unfunny ones. However, the ERP results showed that funny items initially elicited a more negative ERP deflection (N350–450) over frontocentral scalp regions. Dipole analysis localized the generators in the left temporal gyrus and the left medial frontal gyrus; it is suggested that these areas might be involved in detecting the incongruent element in joke comprehension. Between 600 and 800 ms, funny items subsequently elicited a more negative ERP deflection (N600–800) over frontocentral scalp regions and a more positive ERP deflection (P600–800) over posterior scalp regions. Dipole analysis localized the generator in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), an area involved in the breaking of mental set/expectation and the forming of novel associations. Finally, funny items elicited a more positive ERP deflection (P1250–1400) over anterior and posterior scalp regions. Dipole analysis localized the generators in the middle frontal gyrus and the fusiform gyrus, areas that might be related to the affective appreciation stage in joke process. Unlike that of Coulson and Kutas (2001), the present study might support the hypothesis of a three stage model of humor processing (humor detection, resolution of incongruity and humor appreciation).     

Specificity and Abstraction of Examples: Opposite Effects on Fixation for Creative Ideation

Fixation is one of the major obstacles that individuals face in creative idea generation contexts. Several studies have shown that individuals unintentionally tend to fixate to the examples they are shown in a creative ideation task, even when instructed to avoid them. Most of these studies used examples formulated with high level of specificity. However, no study has examined individuals’ creative performance under an instruction to diverge from given examples, when these examples are formulated with a high level of abstraction. In the present study, we show that (a) instructing participants to avoid using common examples when formulated with a high level of specificity increases fixation; whereas (b) instructing participants to avoid such examples while using a more abstract level for stating these common examples—such as a categorization of these examples—mitigates fixation and doubles the number of creative ideas generated. These findings give new insights on the key role of categorization in creative ideation contexts.     

Understanding the effects of exposure to humor expressing affiliative and aggressive motivations

Using humor, being funny, and having a good sense of humor are often reported as desirable qualities. However, little attention has been paid to possible differences in responses to humor reflecting affiliative as opposed to aggressive motivations. In evaluating a stranger, when examples of affiliative and aggressive humor were presented as the stranger’s preferred humor, aggressive humor led to more negative impressions (Study 1). To further explore the impact of humor reflecting affiliative versus aggressive motivations, participants were exposed to equally funny videotapes representing the two humor styles (Study 2). Women’s reported affective experiences varied across the humor styles, but men’s did not. Women and men rated the affiliative video as being more positive than negative, but no differences in the qualities were found for the aggressive video. Results across the two studies demonstrate the importance of considering not just the funniness of humor efforts, but also the social motives conveyed by the humor. Given the complexity of responses to humor, additional research is needed to better understand the contexts within which being funny might have social benefits versus social costs.     

Benefits of Incubation on Divergent Thinking

Studies on whether fixation cues provided in the first episode of divergent thinking tasks influence creative outcomes after incubation, as they do for convergent problem-solving tasks, remain limited. This research examined the beneficial effects of incubation using the delayed- and immediate-incubation paradigms. Participants in Experiment 1 were either provided or not provided fixation cues during the first episode of a new type of divergent-thinking task, similar to creating titles in plot stories. The results indicated that fixation cues moderated people’s creative outcomes after incubation. Going through incubation did not improve the participants’ creativity in the second episode for strong fixation cues. By contrast, an incubation period led to the generation of more divergent items in the second episode compared to the first episode for less strong fixation cues, and this led to the performance matching the condition without fixation cues. The results from Experiment 2 suggested that immediate incubation downsized the influence of fixation cues. Therefore, if people want to promote their creativity through a period of incubation, the outcomes may still depend on the conditions of environments in which the creative works are executed.     

Following the wrong footsteps: fixation effects of pictorial examples in a design problem-solving task

Two experiments examined possible negative transfer in nonexperts from the use of pictorial examples in a laboratory design problem-solving situation. In Experiment 1, 89 participants were instructed to "think aloud" and were assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: (a) control (standard instructions), (b) fixation (inclusion of a problematic example, describing its problematic elements), or (c) defixation (inclusion of a problematic example, with instructions to avoid using problematic elements). Negative transfer due to examples was measured both quantitatively and qualitatively through verbal protocols. Verbal protocols (N = 176) were analyzed for participants' reasons for reference to the examples. In Experiment 2, fixation to examples was evaluated in nonverbalizing participants (N = 60). Results of both experiments suggest that (a) although participants consulted the problem instructions, they tended to follow the examples even when they included inappropriate elements and (b) the fixation effects can be diminished with the use of defixating instructions.     

中文阅读中无关言语效应的认知机制探究：眼动证据

采用眼动追踪技术探讨中文阅读中无关言语效应的影响机制, 操纵了背景音的类型(有意义背景音、无意义背景音、无声), 通过3个实验考察其对简单句、复杂句、篇章阅读的影响。结果发现, 被试在无意义背景音条件下加工三类阅读材料时的眼动指标与无声条件相比差异均不显著; 但是, 在有意义背景音条件下, 被试在进行复杂句和篇章阅读时的眼动指标与无声条件相比差异显著, 而在简单句阅读中差异不显著。结果表明, 语义属性才是影响无关言语效应产生的关键因素, 其所起作用受到阅读任务难度的调节, 而对阅读过程的影响主要体现在晚期的词汇加工和语义整合阶段, 本研究结果支持了语义干扰假说。     

Old or New? Evaluating the Old/New Scoring Method for Divergent Thinking Tasks

When people generate responses during a divergent thinking task, some responses are “old” (retrieved from memory) and some are “new” (generated on the spot). K.J. Gilhooly, E. Fioratou, S.H. Anthony, and V. Wynn (2007) suggested that old and new responses stem from different cognitive strategies and differ in key ways. The present research explored the old/new scoring method in a sample of 143 young adults. After completing unusual uses tasks, the participants classified each response as old or new. The creativity of each response was also rated by three judges and by the participants themselves. As in past research, “old” responses appeared significantly earlier in the task and were rated as significantly less creative by both the judges and the participants. Old and new responses, however, correlated equally strongly with predictors of creative ability, such as openness to experience and its facets. Overall, the old/new scoring approach appears promising as a way of illuminating the diverse mental strategies people use to generate ideas.     

Preferences as expectation-driven inferences: effects of affective expectations on affective experience

Presents a model arguing that affect and emotion are often formed in an expectation-driven fashion. A pilot study and 2 experiments manipulated undergraduate Ss' affective expectations (e.g., how funny they expected a set of cartoons to be) and whether Ss' expectations were confirmed (e.g., whether the cartoons really were funny). When the value of a stimulus was consistent with an affective expectation, people formed evaluations relatively quickly. Even when the value of a stimulus was discrepant from an affective expectation, people sometimes assimilated the value of the stimulus to their expectations. Other times, such as when making a more fine-grained evaluation of the cartoons, people noticed that they were discrepant from their affective expectations. Under these conditions, people appeared to have more difficulty forming preferences. They took longer to evaluate and spent more time thinking about the cartoons.     

A New Measure for the Assessment of Appreciation for Creative Personality

This article introduces a new scale for the assessment of Appreciation for Creative Personality (ACP). The ACP scale is a brief 13-item forced-choice measure that assesses interindividual differences in the preference for interacting with creative people. ACP is considered an important factor of creative climate at the level of interpersonal interaction. Individuals who score high on ACP are thought to foster a creative climate in that they value creative traits in others. In two studies, the psychometric characteristics of the ACP scale were probed. The scale showed a clear unidimensional structure with evidence of good reliability and convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity. The ACP was substantially related to Big Five openness to experience, but predicted relevant criteria over and above openness, supporting the conceptual distinction between ACP and openness. In dyadic data analyses, participants’ openness to experience was significantly associated with their parents’ ACP, which shows that the ACP scale captured shared interpersonal variance. Moreover, parental ACP indirectly predicted participants’ everyday creative activities via the path of openness. These findings suggest that the ACP scale is a useful tool for the study of social-environmental climate for creativity from an interpersonal perspective.     

Reading dream literature: frequency, influencing factors, and self-rated benefit

Dream books have a very long history, but systematic research on how many people have read magazine articles or books on dreams and whether reading such literature is beneficial to the dreamer is scarce. In the present sample of 444 people (mostly psychology students), about 75% of the participants stated that they had read at least one magazine article on dreams, and more than 40% had read at least one book about dreams. The main factor associated with the frequency of reading dream literature was a positive attitude toward dreaming, whereas personality factors play a minor role in explaining interindividual differences in this variable. The self-rated benefit of reading dream literature varied greatly, from not helpful at all to very helpful, and was associated with dream recall frequency and positive attitude toward dreaming. Using this approach in a more sophisticated way, eliciting details about the kinds of information participants have read would help researchers learn more about what techniques of dream work are effective and thus complement the research carried out in therapist-guided sessions.     

Schadenfreude and just world belief

The present study tested the hypothesis that a threat of a just world belief intensifies experience of schadenfreude (i.e., pleasure at another's misfortune). The participants read scenarios which were designed to threaten or maintain their just world belief. Subsequently, they were transferred to an online magazine presenting funny stories about other peoples' failures. As presumed, the participants exposed to the threat of just world belief spent more time on reading. These results confirmed the existence of a link between just world threat and schadenfreude.     

句子理解中抑制不同性质干扰信息的眼动

该研究采用眼动追踪技术和分心阅读范式考察了句子理解中的抑制过程,以及外在干扰信息的性质如何影响阅读中的抑制效率。研究结果发现语义相关干扰词比语义无关干扰词的阅读时间、注视时间更长,注视次数更多。语义无关干扰词比无意义字符串的注视时间更长、注视次数更多。该结果说明阅读过程中干扰信息越有意义,与目标句语义联系越紧密,则越容易被激活,抑制效率也就越低,符合Hasher等人提出的一般认知过程中抑制加工的原理。     

中国人整体性思维特征的情境评估法及其应用

创设了新的中国人思维特征的情境评估方法, 初步应用于整体性思维特征与创造力倾向关系的研究并对其信效度进行了检验。新评估法选取体现典型文化意境和中国人思维特征的成语谜语作为材料, 利用虚拟现实技术构建形与意、情境与语境相互转换的成语谜语文化园, 记录被试游览时即景说出的成语建立成语库, 并编码所录成语的思维特征类型以作为被试的整体性思维测量指标。基于测试数据的信效度分析表明整体性思维成语测试系统信效度表现良好。整体性思维与创造力倾向的相关分析表明, 整体性思维与创造力倾向中的好奇性显著负相关。研究首次证实了利用虚拟现实技术来重建传统文化情境以实现对中国人思维特征的情境评估的可行性, 提示基于虚拟现实技术的情境评估法在未来心理学相关研究中的应用价值。     

不同阅读能力聋人语篇理解中连接推理的眼动比较

采用记录被试阅读完成后回答问题的正确率、反应时与眼动指标,试图探讨不同阅读能力聋人语篇理解中连接推理的加工特点与效率。结果表明:在语篇局部连贯中断情况下,高低阅读能力聋人在语篇理解过程中的连接推理加工是主动的即时性加工,而非语篇阅读完成后被动的延时性加工;但高阅读能力聋人能有效激活背景知识,所发生的连接推理加工是一个自动化的加工;低阅读能力聋人主动尝试即时激活背景知识、构建句子间的连接推理,但连接推理的加工还未达到自动化程度,推理加工的效率较低。     

Reducing reliance on inaccurate information

People learn from the texts that they read, but sometimes what they read is wrong. Previous research has demonstrated that individuals encode even obvious inaccuracies, at times relying on the misinformation to complete postreading tasks. In the present study, we investigated whether the influence of inaccurate information might be reduced by encouraging the retrieval of accurate knowledge. Participants read an extended text that contained both accurate and inaccurate assertions, after which they evaluated the validity of statements associated with those assertions. In general, participants made more mistakes in their evaluations of statements after having read inaccurate as compared to accurate assertions, offering evidence of the influence of misinformation. However, when participants were tasked with correcting inaccuracies during reading, their mistakes were substantially reduced. Encouraging the retrieval of accurate knowledge during reading can reduce the influence of misinformation. These findings are discussed with respect to the contributions of episodic traces and prior knowledge on learning, as well as to the conditions that support successful comprehension.     

Evolving informational credentials: the (mis)attribution of believable facts to credible sources

Three studies demonstrate that individuals often rely on a "belief force equals credible source" heuristic to make source judgments, wherein they assume that statements they believe originate from credible sources. In Study 1, participants who were exposed to a statement many times (and hence believed it) were more likely to attribute it to Consumer Reports than to the National Enquirer. In Study 2, participants read a murder investigation article containing evidence against two suspects from credible and noncredible sources. When participants believed a particular suspect to be guilty, they misattributed evidence incriminating that suspect to the high-credibility source. Study 3 demonstrated that this phenomenon occurs because individuals assume their beliefs are true and that true beliefs come from credible sources; when participants were given feedback that their beliefs were incorrect, the relationship between beliefs and source inferences did not occur.     

Catharsis, aggression, and persuasive influence: self-fulfilling or self-defeating prophecies?

Does media endorsement for catharsis produce a self-fulfilling or a self-defeating prophecy? In Study 1, participants who read a procatharsis message (claiming that aggressive action is a good way to relax and reduce anger) subsequently expressed a greater desire to hit a punching bag than did participants who read an anticatharsis message. In Study 2, participants read the same messages and then actually did hit a punching bag. This exercise was followed by an opportunity to engage in laboratory aggression. Contrary to the catharsis hypothesis and to the self-fulfilling prophecy prediction, people who read the procatharsis message and then hit the punching bag were subsequently more aggressive than were people who read the anticatharsis message.     

The selection of creative ideas after individual idea generation: Choosing between creativity and impact

It is commonly assumed that successful innovation depends on creative idea generation: the more ideas are generated, the higher the probability of selecting a very good idea should be. However, research has shown that people do not perform optimally at idea selection and that ideational output may not contribute much to creative idea selection. The present studies aim to explain this phenomenon. We identified the strong tendency of our participants to select feasible and desirable ideas, at the cost of originality, as the main reason for their poor selection performance. Two manipulations of participants' processing of the available ideas (exclusion instructions and quality ratings) had no effect on selection effectiveness. In contrast, explicitly instructing participants to select creative or original ideas did improve selection effectiveness with regard to idea originality, but at the same time decreased participants' satisfaction and the rated effectiveness of chosen ideas. Results are discussed in relation to an effectiveness‐originality trade off.     

How do I score thee? Let me count the ways. Or some different methods of categorizing Rorschach responses

The controversy over the merit of Exner's (1986) Comprehensive System (CS) has unfortunately led to a confusion of the CS with all methods of scoring responses to inkblots. Six other widely used Rorschach scoring methods and representative examples of the research they have generated are described. Objective tests of personality ask participants to acknowledge explicit motives, whereas projective tests sample implicit needs participants may not recognize. Projective methods provide unique means of studying personality dynamics. The CS, whatever its merits and limitations, is but 1 of a number of systems of categorizing Rorschach responses.