幽默加工的脑机制

幽默是人类一种独特又普遍的现象,其研究具有重要的应用价值。已有的研究对正常人和特殊个体幽默的神经机制进行了探讨,主要涉及幽默加工的双阶段理论模型和神经机制、幽默加工中的认知和情感因素研究、幽默加工脑机制的个体差异以及幽默加工的大脑不对称性。未来的研究需在更宽的视野中对幽默的加工阶段模型以及幽默与其它心理过程之间的关系进行探讨     

认知控制在发散性思维中的作用

探讨认知控制在发散性思维中的作用是当前创造力研究领域的热点问题。目前一致认为认知控制包括工作记忆、抑制控制和认知灵活性三个核心成分。工作记忆对个体在发散性思维中维持任务目标、提取和操作信息发挥重要作用; 抑制控制, 包括优势反应抑制、分心干扰抑制和对潜在相关信息的低抑制, 分别压制对常规观点的提取、确保对内在注意状态的维持和提供更多观念的组合, 进而促进个体的发散性思维表现。此外, 流体智力作为一种高级认知控制能力, 可通过增强策略使用的灵活性从而利于发散性思维。近来神经科学研究表明, 发散性思维不同阶段需要执行控制网络和默认网络的动态协同加工。未来研究应澄清认知控制各子成分间的关系, 探讨认知控制影响发散性思维是否受到其他因素(如动机和情绪)的调节, 以及探索执行控制网络和默认网络的动态协作是否受到任务要求和个体差异(如人格和智力)的影响。     

创造性思维与认知抑制的关系

抑制是创造性思维过程中的一种重要的认知加工机制。创造性思维与认知抑制的关系主要有三种观点：创造性思维的认知去抑制假说、认知抑制假说和适应性认知抑制假说。本文系统评述了创造性思维与认知抑制关系的相关理论、研究新进展和神经机制。未来研究应加强创造性思维与认知抑制关系的理论整合与构建,分析创造性思维的不同阶段的认知抑制机制,采用无意抑制与有意抑制研究范式,对创造性思维与认知抑制的关系、影响因素及神经机制进行深入研究。     

认知客体化及其神经机制

社交媒体上传播着大量的性化图片,性化能够导致客体化,但性化的哪些因素导致客体化及其神经机制尚不明确。综述以往研究发现,在认知加工过程中,对人的加工与对客体的加工是有区别的,对人的加工倾向于构型性加工,对客体的加工则倾向于分析性加工。当被加工的人体图像具有性暗示性姿势时,便会导致加工者采用分析性加工的方式进行加工,即出现认知客体化。而被加工的人体图像的高皮肤与衣服比率没有导致认知客体化。未来研究应该进一步探究以下问题：（1）身体姿势与裸体程度的作用机制问题;（2）认知客体化的其它影响因素;（3）认知客体化与心理归因之间的关系。     

催产素影响条件化恐惧情绪加工的认知机制及神经基础

恐惧是一种与进化密切相关的情绪,对人类的生存与适应具有重要价值。过度的恐惧可能会导致恐惧症、焦虑症和创伤后应激障碍等病理性恐惧的产生。而催产素对各种病理性恐惧的干预和治疗具有重要的价值。因此,研究拟采用行为和fMRI技术,系统探究催产素影响条件化恐惧情绪加工的认知神经机制。重点关注:(1)催产素影响恐惧习得的认知神经机制;(2)催产素影响恐惧记忆巩固的认知神经机制;(3)催产素影响恐惧记忆再巩固的认知神经机制;(4)催产素影响恐惧消退的认知神经机制。这项研究的开展对于探究催产素影响条件化恐惧情绪加工的认知神经机制具有很高的科学价值,对于各种病理性恐惧的干预与治疗也具有重要的应用价值。     

情绪加工的脑时空动态机制

本文综述了罗倩博士及其同事在近年来开展的情绪研究工作。他们通过认知行为和脑成像技术(包括fMRI、MEG), 系统考察了情绪刺激的自动化、优先加工的神经机制, 具体包括三个方面的研究内容：(1)阈下情绪加工(相对于阈上水平)的神经机制; (2)参与情绪加工的脑区之间的动态时空关系及功能联结; (3)情绪与注意之间的交互作用。     

神经美学视角的审美愉悦加工机制

审美对象特有的刺激属性会唤起观赏者特定的情绪或情感反应。个体在欣赏自然、艺术品和其他人类作品时会产生审美愉悦体验。审美愉悦-兴趣模型(PIA)认为, 审美愉悦体验包含审美过程中自动化加工阶段的审美愉悦和控制加工阶段的审美兴趣。近年来, 神经美学研究表明, 负责愉悦和奖赏的眶额叶皮层在审美过程中广泛激活, 是自动化加工阶段初级审美愉悦奖赏的神经基础, 而审美过程中纹状体亚回路中不同的连接和功能作用与两个阶段中审美愉悦的产生都有关联; 上述结果支持了审美愉悦-兴趣模型。但审美高峰体验时默认模式网络(DMN)相关脑区的激活和负责控制与理性思维的外侧前额叶皮层等脑区的失活, 提示在PIA模型强调的自动化加工阶段审美愉悦和控制加工阶段审美兴趣之上, 还有整合升华阶段的审美沉浸愉悦, PIA模型需得到进一步的扩展。未来研究应进一步检验审美愉悦认知加工模型及神经机制, 探索审美对创造力的影响机制和神经基础, 探讨不同审美经验愉悦机制的异同。     

平面性诉求广告记忆效果的加工分离研究

运用PDP（过程分离程序）,以122名大学生为被试,以自编性诉求广告及自编包含与排除问卷为实验材料,采用3×2×2多因素设计,探讨不同裸露类型（含蓄、一般、直露）和代言人类型（名人、一般人）的性诉求广告在不同阶段（控制化加工、自动化加工）认知信息加工的模式差异。结果发现： 1）外显的控制化加工,含蓄型性诉求广告记忆效果最好;2）直露型性诉求广告内隐的自动化加工最高;3）未发现性诉求广告中存在名人效应。     

从ERP研究看前瞻记忆的神经基础和认知加工机制

关于前瞻记忆的ERP研究主要关注两个方面：神经基础和认知加工机制。神经基础方面的研究发现：前瞻记忆诱发了两种特异性的ERP成分—— N300和前瞻性正波; 前瞻记忆与回溯性记忆的神经基础有相似又有不同; 老年人的前瞻记忆可能存在一种不同于年轻人的神经机制。认知加工机制方面的研究主要为前瞻记忆的预备注意加工和记忆加工理论提供了ERP方面的证据支持。     

发散思维的序列位置效应：创新想法动态产生机制的新视角

发散思维的序列位置效应是指随着时间的推移, 单位时间内想法生成的数量逐渐降低, 但想法的独创性逐渐升高的现象。联想理论和执行控制假说分别侧重对序列位置效应的个体差异和认知加工过程进行解释。神经影像学研究表明, 在想法产生的整个阶段序列位置效应依赖于默认网络后部和突显网络的持续增强激活和协同合作; 在想法产生的后期阶段, 颞-顶区域alpha能量值以及执行控制网络与默认网络的协同模式增强。未来研究需要结合语义和神经动态分析等技术, 对序列位置效应的特异性机制、动态加工机制以及影响因素进行深入探究, 从而为解构创新思维的动态过程提供新的视角。     

The Influence of Creativity on Incongruity-Resolution and Nonsense Humor Comprehension

Both creativity and humor are high-level cognitive functions and complex concepts. Although creativity and humor are generally deemed positively correlated, it has been difficult to explicitly identify their relationship with each other. The cognitive process of creativity includes divergent thinking, insight, and remote association, whereas humor comprehension includes incongruity resolution and nonsense humor. The difference between the 2 types of humor is in whether individuals can understand the content of jokes through logical deduction. This study explored the relationship of the different dimensions of cognitive creativity and incongruity-resolution and nonsense humor comprehension. Furthermore, we examined the influence of divergent thinking, insight, and remote association on incongruity-resolution and nonsense humor comprehension. The scores from 103 participants on a divergent thinking questionnaire, an insight problem-solving task, and the Chinese compound remote associate problems test were used to analyze their comprehension of incongruity resolution and nonsense humor. The results showed a positive correlation between remote association and incongruity-resolution humor comprehension, as well as a positive correlation between insight and nonsense humor comprehension. These findings indicate that each dimension of cognitive creativity has a particular way of connecting to various types of humor comprehension.     

The cognitive underpinnings of creative thought: A latent variable analysis exploring the roles of intelligence and working memory in three creative thinking processes

The field of creativity has largely focused on individual differences in divergent thinking abilities. Recently, contemporary creativity researchers have shown that intelligence and executive functions play an important role in divergent thought, opening new lines of research to examine how higher-order cognitive mechanisms may uniquely contribute to creative thinking. The present study extends previous research on the intelligence and divergent thinking link by systematically examining the relationships among intelligence, working memory, and three fundamental creative processes: associative fluency, divergent thinking, and convergent thinking. Two hundred and sixty five participants were recruited to complete a battery of tasks that assessed a range of elementary to higher-order cognitive processes related to intelligence and creativity. Results provide evidence for an associative basis in two distinct creative processes: divergent thinking and convergent thinking. Findings also supported recent work suggesting that intelligence significantly influences creative thinking. Finally, working memory played a significant role in creative thinking processes. Recasting creativity as a construct consisting of distinct higher-order cognitive processes has important implications for future approaches to studying creativity within an individual differences framework.     

Creativity: Hot and cold

Cognitive theorists have frequently distinguished between two types of thinking, one associated with control and reason, and the other with emotional expression A similar distinction was made by Freud between secondary and primary process thinking This paper has investigated whether corresponding styles of creativity can be discovered A study was reported in which two types of behaviour appeared a permissive, expressive type, and a controlled, coping type Both of these correlated positively with self-reported creativity A second study contrasted the correlates of originality on tests of divergent thinking with originality on projective tests. Two clusters emerged, one representing competent, stable, resourceful personalities who scored high on divergent thinking tests of originality, the other representing impulsive, emotionally expressive, imaginative persons who scored high on projective test originality It was concluded that there are two creativity styles corresponding to the two types of cognitive process, and these styles were labelled “cold” creativity and “hot” creativity. Both styles play a part, in varying proportions, in any creativity process Performance on the divergent thinking tests of originality is more closely related to cold than hot creativity and, therefore, the distinction does not correspond with that between convergent and divergent thinking Nor does it correspond with differences between scientific and artistic interests and creativity.     

Identifying Creativity During Problem Solving Using Linguistic Features

Creativity is commonly assessed using divergent thinking tasks, which measure the fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration of participant output on a variety of different tasks. This study assesses the degree to which creativity can be identified based on linguistic features of participants’ language while completing collaborative divergent thinking tasks. To this end, 78 participants’ conversational dialogs (i.e., 39 dyads) within a chat environment were collected while completing three open-ended problem-solving tasks. Expert raters scored the dialogs in terms of fluency, flexibility, elaboration, and originality, as well as three types of creative language (metaphor and simile, humor, and word play). Factor analyses indicated that these scores captured two main constructs (creativity and elaboration). The linguistic features of the participants’ language (captured computationally using natural language processing tools) accounted for significant amounts of variation in both the creativity (R² = .640) and elaboration (R² = .550) scores within linear mixed effect (LME) models. These results highlight specific linguistic features that can be used to explain large amounts of variance in constructs related to creativity.     

Humor and the Limits of Incongruity

ABSTRACT

Humor often plays an important role in creativity and, contrary to the widely held belief that groups interfere with creativity, groups often facilitate humor. This article argues that the Incongruity Theory (IT) of humor comprehension is unable to account for a broad range of humorous events. This argument is supported by detailing the inability of IT to successfully explain a case involving a lack of humor response to a purported incongruity. The notion of the joke-transaction is used as a starting point for an investigation into the psychology and biology of laughter and humor. The findings offer an accurate definition of portions of the joke-transaction concept and contribute to our understanding of creativity in groups.     

Linkographic Evidence for Concurrent Divergent and Convergent Thinking in Creative Design

For a long time, the creativity literature has stressed the role of divergent thinking in creative endeavor. More recently, it has been recognized that convergent thinking also has a role in creativity, and the design literature, which sees design as a creative activity a priori, has largely adopted this view: Divergent and convergent thinking are seen as occurring in cyclic phases within the design process. Neurological evidence suggests that frequent shifts between defocused and focused attention to stimuli in memory activation, which equate divergent and convergent thinking, are a hallmark of creative thinking. In this article, we use linkography to show that the shifts between divergent thinking—forelinking of design moves, and convergent thinking—backlinking of moves, are so frequent that at the cognitive scale they can be seen as occurring concurrently in the ideation phase of creative designing. It is proposed that in assessments of creative potential, shifts between divergent and convergent thinking should be the yardstick instead of, or alongside measurements of divergent thinking.     

Creative Thinking in an Emotional Context: Specific Relevance of Executive Control of Emotion-Laden Representations in the Inventiveness in Generating Alternative Appraisals of Negative Events

Although divergent thinking ability in different domains may largely rely on the same basic executive functions, domain-specific functions may also be important, in particular when it comes to more real-life creativity demands. This study investigated if functional executive control of emotion-laden representations may be specifically relevant in cognitive reappraisal, which implies being creative in an affective context. In a sample of 88 healthy individuals, the relation between the participants’ inventiveness in generating positive reappraisals of adverse events (Reappraisal Inventiveness Test) and in generating novel ideas without emotional component (conventional divergent thinking test) to their executive functioning in tasks without (Mittenecker Pointing Test) and with emotional contribution (humor processing task) was studied. In line with hybrid models of creative thinking, poorer basic inhibition skills were found to be associated with poorer fluency performance in both divergent thinking tasks. Relations applied more specifically to reappraisal inventiveness when it came to executive processes with a more prominent emotional component. Creative performance in both tasks may have been hampered by time limits. The results support the notion that, in addition to basic executive functioning, more specific cognitive control functions are implicated in more real-life creative performance, according to related domain-specific demands.     

Differential Relationships of Light and Darker Forms of Humor with Mindfulness

This study proposes two links between facets of mindfulness and different forms of humor: First, the common benevolence should link mindfulness positively to light forms of humor and negatively to darker forms of humor. Second, similar cognitive mechanisms should underlie both mindfulness and humor ability (humor detection, comprehension, and production). Third, both are malleable, and we hypothesize that fostering humor and mindfulness may mutually influence each other, leading to innovative and practical interventions for settings such as the workplace. In three studies, the relationship of humor and mindfulness as outlined in the Humor Mindfulness Relationship Model was investigated. In Studies 1 and 2, the relationship of different forms of humor and mindfulness was investigated in a sample of health care professionals and a broad online sample. In Study 3, the effect of a mindfulness intervention on humor as a character strength was investigated, giving preliminary insights into the mutual malleability of both. Results confirmed the positive relationship among light forms of humor and mindfulness as well as negative relationships of darker forms of humor with mindfulness. The mindfulness intervention fostered humor as a character strength. These results indicate that humor and mindfulness may be fruitfully combined in positive interventions as well as in the vocational setting. Moreover, the results suggest initial evidence for the Humor Mindfulness Relationship Model.

     

Openness to Experience and Intellect Differentially Predict Creative Achievement in the Arts and Sciences

The Big Five personality dimension Openness/Intellect is the trait most closely associated with creativity and creative achievement. Little is known, however, regarding the discriminant validity of its two aspects—Openness to Experience (reflecting cognitive engagement with perception, fantasy, aesthetics, and emotions) and Intellect (reflecting cognitive engagement with abstract and semantic information, primarily through reasoning)—in relation to creativity. In four demographically diverse samples totaling 1,035 participants, we investigated the independent predictive validity of Openness and Intellect by assessing the relations among cognitive ability, divergent thinking, personality, and creative achievement across the arts and sciences. We confirmed the hypothesis that whereas Openness predicts creative achievement in the arts, Intellect predicts creative achievement in the sciences. Inclusion of performance measures of general cognitive ability and divergent thinking indicated that the relation of Intellect to scientific creativity may be due at least in part to these abilities. Lastly, we found that Extraversion additionally predicted creative achievement in the arts, independently of Openness. Results are discussed in the context of dual‐process theory.     

不同冥想类型对创造性思维的影响及作用机制

冥想与创造性的关系正逐渐被关注,澄清冥想练习对创造性思维的影响效果和作用机制对个体创新潜能的培养与提升具有重要意义。不同冥想类型对创造性思维的影响具有特异性,专注冥想主要通过注意聚焦和提升自上而下的执行控制能力来对聚合思维产生积极影响;正念冥想引起的离焦的注意状态,以及对认知灵活性和积极情绪的促进,有助于发散思维。未来应加强不同冥想类型与创造性思维的整合研究,探讨冥想影响创造性思维的脑机制,以及冥想与其他干预训练对创造性思维的不同作用机制等。