Age differences in the enjoyment of incongruity-resolution and nonsense humor during adulthood

This study tested a model of the development of incongruity-resolution and nonsense humor during adulthood. Subjects were 4,292 14- to 66-year-old Germans. Twenty jokes and cartoons representing structure-based humor categories of incongruity resolution and nonsense were rated for funniness and aversiveness. Humor structure preferences were also assessed with a direct comparison task. The results generally confirmed the hypotheses. Incongruity-resolution humor increased in funniness and nonsense humor decreased in funniness among progressively older subjects after the late teens. Aversiveness of both forms of humor generally decreased over the ages sampled. Age differences in humor appreciation were strongly correlated with age differences in conservatism. An especially strong parallel was found between age differences in appreciation of incongruity-resolution humor and age differences in conservatism.     

发散性思维与幽默的认知神经机制比较——基于双加工理论的视角

在双加工理论视角下对发散性思维与幽默的认知神经机制进行了系统整理。发现二者的认知加工过程具有相似性：前期都依赖于自动化加工;而后期随着认知负荷的增加,越来越依赖控制化加工。脑机制方面：控制化加工条件下,二者的神经机制重叠部分比自动化加工条件下多,其中负责控制化加工的前额皮层是二者共同的关键脑区。未来可从两类加工协同合作的角度深入揭示发散性思维与幽默的内在机制。     

“啊哈！”和“哈哈！”：顿悟与幽默的脑认知成分比较

作为人类智能的高级表现形式, 顿悟和幽默存在诸多共同之处。从认知和情感组成上看, 顿悟的非连续性、突发性、重构和惊讶, 对应于幽默的失谐、失谐探测、失谐消解和愉悦, 两者存在表征机制的重叠。神经机制的研究发现, 顿悟和幽默的心理事件都伴随着400 ms左右的额中央区负波(N400)以及前扣带回、顶颞叶联合区和前额叶等脑区的活动; 同时顿悟和幽默在P300成分以及海马、右侧前部颞上回等脑区活动上存在差异。未来可借鉴幽默的认知和情感成份的脑成像研究范式, 进一步探明顿悟过程的认知和情感组成。     

Relationships among affective and cognitive factors in humor

One hundred and twenty-five college students rated a total of 74 jokes, chosen by stratified sampling, on funniness and on 13 other scales suggested by humor theories. Highly similar factor structures were found with two sets of jokes. Ratings of surprise, resolution, and originality correlated strongly with funniness and helped define a factor on which funniness ratings loaded. Scales pertaining to painfulness, anxiety, or importance of joke topic were positively correlated with funniness but defined a factor essentially independent of it. Partial correlations suggested that these scales were related to funniness through their common relationship with incongruity and resolution scales. Ratings of how much a joke made subjects “feel free” correlated much more highly with ratings of incongruity and resolution than with ratings of painfulness, anxiety, or importance of joke topic. Results were interpreted as providing support for an incongruity-resolution theory of humor, and for the interdependency of affective factors with incongruity-resolution mechanisms.     

幽默加工中不一致探测与解决的脑机制分离

本fMRI研究使用“文字背景—漫画图片”实验范式,设计了三种实验条件（可笑、不可笑和无关）,试图对幽默加工中不一致探测与解决的脑机制进行分离。可笑与不可笑条件对比的结果与前人研究一致,证明了新实验范式的有效性。其次,无关与不可笑条件比较,右侧脑岛激活,说明脑岛可能与不一致探测有关。综合分析发现,脑岛与杏仁核可能共同参与了不一致探测加工。此外,结果还第一次区分了幽默加工中不一致解决与一般问题解决的脑区。     

Spontaneous eye blinks during creative task correlate with divergent processing

Creativity consists of divergent and convergent thinking, with both related to individual eye blinks at rest. To assess underlying mechanisms between eye blinks and traditional creativity tasks, we investigated the relationship between creativity performance and eye blinks at rest and during tasks. Participants performed an alternative uses and remote association task while eye blinks were recorded. Results showed that the relationship between eye blinks at rest and creativity performance was compatible with those of previous research. Interestingly, we found that the generation of ideas increased as a function of eye blink number during the alternative uses task. On the other hand, during the remote association task, accuracy was independent of eye blink number during the task, but response time increased with it. Moreover, eye blink changes in participants who responded quickly during the remote association task were different depending on their resting state eye blinks; that is, participants with many eye blinks during rest showed little increasing eye blinks and achieved solutions quickly. Positive correlations between eye blinks during creative tasks and yielding ideas on the alternative uses task and response time on the remote association task suggest that eye blinks during creativity tasks relate to divergent thinking processes such as conceptual reorganization.     

An investigation into the relationships between convergent and divergent thinking, schizotypy, and autistic traits

This study explored the relationships between positive and negative schizotypy, convergent and divergent thinking, and autistic traits within the normal population. Seventy-seven students at Oxford University completed tasks to assess divergent and convergent thinking, and completed questionnaires to measure schizotypy and autistic tendencies. Evidence for relationships between negative schizotypy, autistic traits, and convergent thinking was found, but the expected association between positive schizotypy and divergent thinking was not replicated. These findings are discussed in the context of a cognitive inhibition theory of creativity.     

创造性思维的脑机制

创造性思维是创造性的核心。近年来,脑电和脑成像技术的发展为研究创造性思维的神经基础提供了有力的技术支持,对创造性思维的脑机制研究取得了较大进展。创造性思维的脑机制研究主要包括顿悟的脑机制、发散性思维的脑机制、远距离联想的脑机制、言语创造性和图画创造性的对比的脑机制研究。研究结果显示创造性思维需要多个脑区的参与,因不同的认知任务其关键脑区而有所不同。对创造性思维的脑机制研究进行了总结,对这些研究可能存在创造性思维究竟应该定义为“领域一般的”还是“领域特殊的”的解释进行了讨论,并指出了研究中可能存在的基线任务设置问题和未来研究中需要在研究手段、研究设计、研究领域等方面加以改进的建议     

Risk-Taking and Creativity: Convergent,but Not Divergent Thinking Is Better in Low-Risk Takers

The relationship between risk-taking and creativity is critical to understanding social harmony and innovation. Although some studies have assessed the link between risk-taking and divergent thinking, the association between risk-taking and convergent thinking remains unclear. Two studies were conducted to systemically investigate whether risk-taking is linked to convergent thinking. In Study 1, a sample of 127 healthy participants performed a Chinese remote associate test (RAT) and completed a risk-taking questionnaire. As predicted, risk-taking was negatively correlated with RAT performance, implying that risk-taking has a negative association with convergent thinking. Study 2 was an online survey study that replicated Study 1 and extended the measures to include self-rated risk and a measure of divergent thinking (the alternate uses task). The findings were fully replicated, showing that low risk-taking goes with better convergent thinking and risk-taking was not significantly correlated with divergent thinking. Furthermore, the risk-taking/convergent-thinking relationship was best described by a linear regression model in both studies. Taken together, these results suggest that appropriate reductions in risk-taking can boost convergent thinking.     

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.     

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。     

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。     

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.     

Compréhension et appréciation de l’humour : approche cognitivo-émotionnelle

According to Suls (1972), humor relies on the simultaneous perception of a situation from the perspective of two self-consistent but normally incompatible frames of reference, namely incongruity. The subsequent resolution of the incongruity triggers positive emotional states such as mirth. The aim of the present question review is to highlight that Suls’ theory, though crucial, is insufficient, because it does not sufficiently allow to identify the various assessment processes and the range of emotion that may arise. The present question review is based on four parts. The first part presents the Incongruity-Resolution's model and the supporting research. The second presents four sets of results, which cannot be interpreted in the narrow framework of Suls’ theory. The third part presents empirical research on emotion, highlighting the importance of surprise, as well as positive and negative emotions triggered by humor process. Finally, in the fourth part, we propose a cognitivo-emotional model established on the main results described in this article in order to both complete Suls’ theory and to promote the study of the relationship between the cognitive and emotional aspects of humor.     

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.     

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.     

Cognitive Abilities Involved in Insight Problem Solving: An Individual Differences Model

This study investigated individual differences in cognitive abilities that contribute to solving insight problems. A model is proposed describing three types of cognitive ability that contribute independently to insight: convergent thinking, divergent thinking, and breaking frame. The model was tested in a large sample (N = 108) by regressing insight problem solving performance on measures of these three abilities. This analysis demonstrated that all three abilities predicted insight independently. Convergent thinking was further broken down into verbal intelligence and working memory, which also predicted insight independently of each other and of divergent thinking and breaking frame. Finally, when pitted against noninsight problem solving as a predictor in regression, only insight problem solving was uniquely associated with divergent thinking and breaking frame. The model is suggested as a potentially useful taxonomy for the study of ill-defined problems and cognitive abilities.     

The Effects of Zhongyong Thinking Priming on Creative Problem‐Solving

Zhongyong thinking is a common approach adopted by Chinese people to solve problems encountered in life and work. Based on the four modes of zhongyong thinking proposed by Pang (Social Sciences in China, 1, 1980, 75), this study chooses the “neither A nor B” form, which represents the “mean” (中) characteristics of zhongyong thinking, called eclectic thinking, and the “both A and B” form, which reflects the “harmony” (和) feature, called integrated thinking. This study primed eclectic thinking and integrated thinking, respectively, through self‐compiled problem situations, and 150 college students and postgraduates students were the participants. Experiment 1 explored the role of the priming of zhongyong thinking in three classic creative thinking tasks: a divergent thinking test, remote association test, and insight problem‐solving test. Experiment 2 further examined the effect of priming of zhongyong thinking on “market investment problems” with higher ecological validity. The findings show that priming integrated thinking can improve remote associates test performance and promote creative solutions to market investment problems, but there is no significant impact on the scores of divergent thinking test and insight problem‐solving; priming eclectic thinking has no significant impact on any of the subsequent creative tasks. This study shows that integrated thinking primes cognitive processing related to information association and information integration, promoting subsequent creative tasks.     

Influence of divergent and convergent thinking on visuomotor adaptation in young and older adults

Visuomotor adaptation declines in older age. This has been attributed to cognitive impairments. One relevant cognitive function could be creativity, since creativity is implicated as mediator of early learning. The present study therefore evaluates whether two aspects of creativity, divergent and convergent thinking, are differentially involved in the age-dependent decline of visuomotor adaptation.In 25 young and 24 older volunteers, divergent thinking was assessed by the alternative-uses-task (AUT), convergent thinking by the Intelligenz-Struktur-Test-2000 (IST), and sensorimotor-adaptation by a pointing task with 60° rotated visual feedback.Young participants outperformed older participants in all three tasks. AUT scores were positively associated with young but not older participants’ adaptive performance, whereas IST scores were negatively associated with older but not young participants’ adaptive performance. This pattern of findings could be attributed to a consistent relationship between AUT, IST and adaptation; taking this into account, adaptation deficits of older participants were no longer significant.We conclude that divergent thinking supports workaround-strategies during adaptation, but doesn’t influence visuomotor recalibration. Furthermore, the decay of divergent thinking in older adults may explain most of age-related decline of adaptive strategies. When the age-related decay of divergent thinking coincides with well-preserved convergent thinking, adaptation suffers most.     

The (b)link between creativity and dopamine: Spontaneous eye blink rates predict and dissociate divergent and convergent thinking

Human creativity has been claimed to rely on the neurotransmitter dopamine, but evidence is still sparse. We studied whether individual performance (N = 117) in divergent thinking (alternative uses task) and convergent thinking (remote association task) can be predicted by the individual spontaneous eye blink rate (EBR), a clinical marker of dopaminergic functioning. EBR predicted flexibility in divergent thinking and convergent thinking, but in different ways. The relationship with flexibility was independent of intelligence and followed an inverted U-shape function with medium EBR being associated with greatest flexibility. Convergent thinking was positively correlated with intelligence but negatively correlated with EBR, suggesting that higher dopamine levels impair convergent thinking. These findings support the claim that creativity and dopamine are related, but they also call for more conceptual differentiation with respect to the processes involved in creative performance.