Creative cognition, conceptual combination, and the creative writing of Stephen R. Donaldson

This article explores the reported use of conceptual combination in Stephen R. Donaldson's development of the idea for his award-winning fantasy series. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. Donaldson's (1991) own account is used to illustrate the general principles of a creative cognition approach to understanding creativity as well as the more specific role of the basic process of conceptual combination. The links between Donaldson's and others' anecdotal accounts of creativity and laboratory investigations are assessed. The article concludes with an argument for a "convergence" approach in which information from anecdotal accounts and laboratory studies is combined to provide a more complete picture of creative functioning than either approach alone can offer.     

Language, meaning, and social cognition.

Social cognition is meant to examine the process of meaningful social interaction. Despite the central involvement of language in this process, language has not received the focal attention that it deserves. Conceptualizing meaningful social interaction as the process of construction and exchange of meaning, the authors argue that language can be productively construed as a semiotic tool, a tool for meaning making and exchange, and that language use can produce unintended consequences in its users. First, the article shows a particular instance of language use to be a collaborative process that influences the representation of meaning in the speaker, the listener, and the collective that includes both the speaker and listener. It then argues that language use and social cognition may have reciprocal effects in the long run and may have significant implications for generating and maintaining cultural differences in social cognition.     

Mind,consciousness, and cognition: Phenomenology vs. cognitive science

I would like to thank Steven Crowell from Rice University (Philosophy Department) for helpful comments and suggestions about my discussion of Husserl and other phenomenologists, and Edouard Philippe, also from Rice University (Electrical Engineering Department), for offering me the opportunity to formulate my views on cognitive science and artificial intelligence.     

创造性认知风格、创造性人格与创造性思维的关系

对315名初中生施测Kirton适应–创新认知风格问卷、Williams创造性倾向量表和Torrance创造性思维测验任务,以考察创造性认知风格、创造性人格与创造性思维之间的关系。相关分析表明,在创造性认知风格中,效率性、规则性均与创造性思维呈显著负相关;在创造性人格中,冒险性、好奇心及挑战性均与创造性思维显著正相关。回归分析进一步表明,在创造性认知风格中,创新性、效率性分别正向、负向预测创造性思维,在创造性人格中,好奇心正向预测创造性思维;对回归系数的逐步检验发现,创新性维度通过创造性人格而对创造性思维具有间接的积极影响。结构方程模型结果则显示,创新性维度、规则性维度以创造性人格为中介分别对创造性思维发生间接的积极、消极影响。可见,创新认知风格有利于创造性思维,而适应认知风格不利于创造性思维;创造性人格有利于创造性思维;创造性人格在创造性认知风格与创造性思维之间具有一定的中介作用,创新性认知风格通过创造性人格而促进创造性思维,规则性认知风格通过创造性人格而抑制创造性思维。     

Varieties of inhibition: manifestations in cognition, event-related potentials and aging.

Inhibition and facilitation are the driving forces of selective attention. Some important and still unresolved conceptual issues with respect to facilitation and inhibition are: (a) are they separate processes with different neural substrates (b) what is their time course and (c) what is their temporal locus: do they operate at the level of early sensory, central or response-related selection processes? In this introductory article we present a overview of relevant experimental paradigms that are also (in part) reflected in the contributions of this special volume, and discuss the major behavioral and psychophysiological findings from which inhibitory processes have been inferred. The global pattern of the results indicates that there are multiple inhibitory systems and processes in the central nervous system that may be expressed in many different ways. Our overview of paradigms together with the aging-related literature leads us to propose a framework for conceptualizing inhibitory processes in terms of three distinct but interacting neural systems at the level of anterior and posterior cortices and the brain stem.     

Creative Thinking: Processes,Strategies, and Knowledge

Creative achievements are the basis for progress in our world. Although creative achievement is influenced by many variables, the basis for creativity is held to lie in the generation of high‐quality, original, and elegant solutions to complex, novel, ill‐defined problems. In the present effort, we examine the cognitive capacities that make creative problem‐solving possible. We argue that creative problem‐solving depends on the effective execution of a set of complex cognitive processes. Effective execution of these processes is, in turn, held to depend on the strategies employed in process execution and the knowledge being used in problem‐solving. The implications of these observations for improving creative thinking are discussed.     

Williams syndrome: cognition, personality, and adaptive behavior

Williams syndrome is caused by a microdeletion of at least 16 genes on chromosome 7q11.23. The syndrome results in mild to moderate mental retardation or learning disability. The behavioral phenotype for Williams syndrome is characterized by a distinctive cognitive profile and an unusual personality profile. Relative to overall level of intellectual ability, individuals with Williams syndrome typically show a clear strength in auditory rote memory, a strength in language, and an extreme weakness in visuospatial construction. The personality of individuals with Williams syndrome involves high sociability, overfriendliness, and empathy, with an undercurrent of anxiety related to social situations. The adaptive behavior profile for Williams syndrome involves clear strength in socialization skills (especially interpersonal skills related to initiating social interaction), strength in communication, and clear weakness in daily living skills and motor skills, relative to overall level of adaptive behavior functioning. Literature relevant to each of the components of the Williams syndrome behavioral phenotype is reviewed, including operationalizations of the Williams syndrome cognitive profile and the Williams syndrome personality profile. The sensitivity and specificity of these profiles for Williams syndrome, relative to individuals with other syndromes or mental retardation or borderline normal intelligence of unknown etiology, is considered. The adaptive behavior profile is discussed in relation to the cognitive and personality profiles. The importance of operationalizations of crucial components of the behavioral phenotype for the study of genotype/phenotype correlations in Williams syndrome is stressed. MRDD Research Reviews 2000;6:148-158.     

An incomplete gallery: machines, cognition, and nonlinearities

In this communication, some issues related to the old but still open question, on how far the development of cognitive processing in artificial machines can go, are discussed. A selected gallery of images derived from laboratory experiments are presented. The incompleteness of the gallery is as that in the definition of what we mean as cognitive processing.     

An incomplete gallery: machines,cognition, and nonlinearities

In this communication, some issues related to the old but still open question, on how far the development of cognitive processing in artificial machines can go, are discussed. A selected gallery of images derived from laboratory experiments are presented. The incompleteness of the gallery is as that in the definition of what we mean as cognitive processing.