The impact of eye movements on a verbal creativity task

Bilateral eye movements (EMs) have been shown to induce cognitive enhancements for episodic memory, attention, and divergent thinking. Increased interhemispheric interaction has been suggested as a possible mechanism behind the EM effect, but other theories, including an increase in attentional control following EMs have also been proposed. The present research explored whether the bilateral EM effect could be extended to a creativity task that draws heavily on convergent thinking. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four EM conditions (bilateral, centre control, right-centre, or left-centre) and were presented with compound remote associate problems. After 7 s, participants were asked to make a solution/non-solution judgement to a target word presented in the left or right visual field. Bilateral and right-centre EM conditions exhibited enhanced performance on the task, with the bilateral condition demonstrating the best performance for solution targets and the right-centre condition presenting the best performance for non-solution targets. The implications of these findings are discussed in light of the neural components of creativity and theories surrounding the effects of EMs on cognition.     

The dark side of creativity: biological vulnerability and negative emotions lead to greater artistic creativity

Historical and empirical data have linked artistic creativity to depression and other affective disorders. This study examined how vulnerability to experiencing negative affect, measured with biological products, and intense negative emotions influenced artistic creativity. The authors assessed participants' baseline levels of an adrenal steroid (dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate, or DHEAS), previously linked to depression, as a measure of affective vulnerability. They then manipulated emotional responses by randomly assigning participants to receive social rejection or social approval or to a nonsocial situation. Participants then completed artistic collages, which were later evaluated by artists. Results confirmed a person-by-situation interaction. Social rejection was associated with greater artistic creativity; however, the interaction between affective vulnerability (lower baseline DHEAS) and condition was significant, suggesting that situational triggers of negative affect were especially influential among those lower in DHEAS, which resulted in the most creative products. These data provide evidence of possible biological and social pathways to artistic creativity.     

Boundless Creativity: Evidence for the Domain Generality of Individual Differences in Creativity

This study investigated correlates of domain‐general and domain‐specific components of creativity. 158 college students completed a questionnaire that assessed their motivational and personality traits (i.e., intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, creative personality, and originality in word association) as well as intellectual abilities (SAT verbal and quantitative scores). Under two different instruction conditions (standard instruction or explicit “be creative” instruction), students also took a battery of multi‐item, product‐based tests of creativity in three domains (artistic, verbal, and mathematical creativity). Factor analyses showed evidence of domain‐generality of creativity. Furthermore, results from structural equation models showed that motivational and personality traits and intellectual abilities were associated with the domain‐general component of creativity. Only one variable (SAT quantitative score) was found to be associated with the domain‐specific component of mathematical creativity under the explicit “be creative” instruction condition. These results affirm the domain‐generality of creativity and challenge researchers to identify correlates of domain‐specific components of creativity.     

The Effects of Competition on Improvisers’ Motivation,Stress, and Creative Performance

We explored how competition affects the quality of musical improvisation, as well as the intrinsic motivation and stress reported by improvisers. Amateur musicians improvised on a keyboard in one of two conditions: induced competition and no competition. Employing the consensual assessment technique, improvisations were assessed for creativity and technical goodness by 10 expert judges. Findings indicate that improvisations were judged as more creative under competitive than non-competitive conditions. Moreover, improvisers in the competition condition were more intrinsically motivated, as well as more stressed, than improvisers in the no competition condition. The creativity and technical goodness dimensions of improvisations were positively related to each other. The findings are discussed in light of the intense debate over the effects of extrinsic motivators on intrinsic motivation and creativity and offer mechanisms through which competition may affect creative performance as well as discuss the role of stress in affecting motivation and creativity.     

知识密集型组织的雇佣关系民主治理和员工创造力研究

本文探讨了雇佣关系民主治理对员工创造力影响的中介机制和边界条件,并利用跨层次的调查数据进行实证研究。研究结果发现:(1)雇佣关系民主治理显著正向影响员工创造力;(2)内在动机在雇佣关系民主治理与员工创造力间起部分中介作用;(3)组织知识密集度对雇佣关系民主治理与员工内在动机的正向关系间有着显著强化作用;(4)雇佣关系民主治理和组织知识密集度的交互作用通过内在动机的中介作用,进而影响员工创造力。     

团队多样性与组织支持对团队创造力的影响

采用实验法在专业异质性与群体断层两个水平上操纵团队多样性, 通过两个实验考察团队多样性与组织支持的交互作用对团队创造力的影响。研究结果表明：(1)在独创性维度上, 专业异质团队在工具支持条件下的独创性显著高于专业同质团队, 情感和物质支持条件下二者差异不显著。当团队出现群体断层时, 情感支持与工具支持具有同样的促进作用, 即在这两种组织支持下, 强断层团队的独创性显著高于弱断层团队; 物质支持条件下二者差异不显著。(2)在适宜性维度上, 组织支持的主效应显著, 两个实验一致地发现物质支持条件下的适宜性显著高于情感支持和工具支持。本研究从团队多样性与组织支持交互作用的角度考察不同复杂程度、不同组织目标的多样性团队所需要的组织支持条件, 对促进团队创造力具有一定的理论与实践价值。     

From prevention focus to adaptivity and creativity: the role of unfulfilled goals and work engagement

ABSTRACT

Whereas promotion focus is consistently linked to high adaptivity (i.e., adjustment to changes) and creativity (i.e., generation of useful and original ideas), prevention focus is commonly associated with low adaptivity and creativity. The present study uncovers the conditions under which prevention focus may also have positive effects on adaptivity and creativity. First, we hypothesize that trait-level promotion focus positively relates to day-level adaptivity as well as creativity. More importantly, we hypothesize that trait-level prevention focus positively relates to day-level adaptivity and creativity when day-level goal fulfilment is low (i.e., two-way interactions) and that these effects are stronger when day-level work engagement is high (i.e., three-way interactions). To test our hypotheses, we conducted a daily diary survey among 209 employees from different occupational sectors, over five working days. As expected, trait promotion focus was positively related to adaptivity and creativity. Furthermore, trait prevention focus positively related to both adaptivity and creativity when day-level goal fulfilment was low andday-level work engagement was high (3-way interactions). None of the two-way interaction effects of trait prevention focus and goal fulfilment was significant. Our findings suggest that prevention focus and unfulfilled goals jointly should not only be seen as threats, but also as opportunities for adaptation and creativity.     

Creators and Presses: The Person–Situation Interaction in Negative Creativity

Given the recent emphasis on exploring valence in creative behavior, this study examines negative creativity via a person–situation interactionist perspective. By manipulating goal valence (uses or misuses) and object valence (positive or negative), four conditions of an adapted Divergent Thinking task were used to predict positive and negative creativity. Participants (N = 178, 103 females, M_age = 23.82, SD = 4.03, range: 18–38) responded to a single condition along with the Big Five and Dark Triad personality scales in a between-groups design. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that goal and object valence significantly explained variance in valences of creative responses, beyond individual differences of personality. Furthermore, the congruence between goal and object valence predicted valenced creativity; that is, the positive objects and goals condition yielded more positive-original ideas, and the negative objects and goals condition yielded more negative-original ones. Object valence alone (material presses) did not contribute significantly to explaining valenced creativity. Negative-original responses were inversely related to conscientiousness, and directly to intellect/imagination and secondary psychopathy. Thus, negative creativity was attributed relatively more to person as compared to situation variables. Results are discussed from a valence-based and interactionist perspective.     

多巴胺、5-羟色胺通路相关基因及家庭环境对创造力的影响及其作用机制

创造力的遗传基础是近年来创造力研究领域的前沿和热点问题, 但仍尚处于起步阶段, 也未有研究系统探讨遗传与环境因素的交互作用对创造力的影响及其作用机制。本课题拟在中国汉族人群中考察多巴胺(DA)、5-羟色胺(5-HT)神经递质通路上的32个基因约700个多态性位点与创造力的关系, 并首次探讨家庭环境在遗传多态性与创造力关系中的调节作用。研究内容包括：(1)通过单基因、基于通路以及基因—基因交互作用的关联分析, 考察遗传多态性对创造力的影响, 揭示创造力的遗传基础; (2)通过基因—环境交互作用的关联分析, 考察家庭环境在遗传与创造力关系中的调节作用; (3)通过结构方程模型的比较分析, 揭示遗传与家庭环境在创造力两个方面(创造思维与创造人格)共享的与特异的作用机制。该项目成果能够从遗传与环境交互作用的角度阐明创造力个体差异的原因, 有助于构建基于创造力个体差异分析的理论模型, 对创造人才的鉴别和培养具有重要现实意义。     

When the presence of creative coworkers is related to creativity: role of supervisor close monitoring,developmental feedback,and creative personality

Study 1 was conducted to examine the contribution of the joint condition of supervisor close monitoring and the presence of creative coworkers to employees' creativity. In addition to replicating Study 1's results, Study 2 examined (a) the joint condition of supervisor developmental feedback and presence of creative coworkers and (b) whether creative personality moderated the contributions of the 2 joint conditions. Converging results from the 2 field studies demonstrated that when creative coworkers were present, the less supervisors engaged in close monitoring, the more employees exhibited creativity. Study 2 also found that the contribution of this joint condition was stronger for employees with less creative personalities and that when creative coworkers were present, the more supervisors provided developmental feedback, the more employees exhibited creativity.     

自恋型领导对团队创造力形成过程的多视角研究

领导自恋是组织中的普遍现象, 自恋型领导是否能有效地整合团队知识形成创新是管理者不可回避的问题。在回顾已有研究基础上, 采用聚合观、过程观和社会网络三种视角, 全面地厘清自恋型领导对团队创造力的影响。其中, 聚合观强调个体创造力对形成团队创造力的重要作用, 过程观强调团队成员之间的交互作用在团队创造力形成过程中不可或缺, 而社会网络视角注重团队成员的相对位置和内外关系。三种视角相互补充, 明确了自恋型领导和团队创造力之间关系的内在机制以及边界条件。研究结论将为存在自恋型领导的团队干预策略提供参考, 有助于为管理者提高自恋型领导对团队作用的有效性提供借鉴。     

Fostering team creativity: Perspective taking as key to unlocking diversity's potential

Despite the clear importance of team creativity for organizations, the conditions that foster it are not very well understood. Even though diversity, especially diversity of perspectives and knowledge, is frequently argued to stimulate higher creativity in teams, empirical findings on this relationship remain inconsistent. We have developed a theoretical model in which the effect of a team's diversity on its creativity is moderated by the degree to which team members engage in perspective taking. We propose that perspective taking helps realize the creative benefits of diversity of perspectives by fostering information elaboration. Results of a laboratory experiment support the hypothesized interaction between diversity and perspective taking on team creativity. Diverse teams performed more creatively than homogeneous teams when they engaged in perspective taking, but not when they were not instructed to take their team members' perspectives. Team information elaboration was found to mediate this moderated effect and was associated with a stronger indirect effect than mere information sharing or task conflict. Our results point to perspective taking as an important mechanism to unlock diversity's potential for team creativity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Trick‐or‐Treat Candy‐Getters and Hornet Scare Devices: Second Graders Make Creative Inventions Related to Animal Adaptations

This repeated measures study examined second graders' (n = 21) performance in creating inventions related to animal adaptations for simple products under two conditions that alternated each week for a six‐week period. In the analogy condition, students used form and function analogy object boxes to learn about animal adaptations, applying these concepts with the SCAMPER technique to generate a new product with a given item. In the traditional condition, students learned about animal adaptations through text/Internet searches and created a puppet play to organize, reinforce, and share these ideas. Students discussed ideas, and then brainstormed product inventions for given items. In both conditions, students drew advertisements for their inventions that were scored for inventiveness content and creativity. Weekly inventiveness content scores and creativity scores were higher for the experimental condition than for the traditional condition with large effect sizes.     

Procedural Fairness and Creativity: Does Voice Maintain People's Creative Vein Over Time?

Although some research suggests a link between procedural fairness and creativity, so far no study has directly tested whether a real manipulation of procedural fairness affects creativity. Additionally, research on procedural fairness effects consists mostly of unique studies, but more realistic, life-like longitudinal experiments with repeated fairness manipulations are lacking. This study investigated the influence of procedural fairness (i.e., having voice) on similar creativity tasks over a period of 4 weeks. Participants in the fair procedure condition maintained their level of creativity during the course of the experiment, whereas participants who were treated unfairly showed a decline in creativity. This research confirms the supporting role of conditions of procedural fairness regarding creativity and the importance of longitudinal designs to fully explore procedural fairness effects.     

TPH2基因rs4570625多态性和母亲权威教养对创造力的交互作用

采用基因分型技术、自我报告及表现性评价对409名健康的中国汉族大学生的基因型、母亲教养方式、一般智力和创造力进行测量,综合运用分层回归分析和显著性区域分析（Regions of Significance, RoS）方法探讨了TPH2基因rs4570625多态性与母亲权威教养对创造力的交互作用及其交互作用模式。结果发现：（1）在创造力的流畅性和独创性维度上,rs4570625多态性和母亲权威存在显著的交互作用。（2）RoS分析结果均支持差别易感模型,T等位基因是母亲权威的“可塑性”基因。这些发现将有助于从遗传和环境相互作用的角度解释个体创造力差异的起源。     

Does Cognitive Style Moderate Expected Evaluation and Adolescents' Creative Performance: An Empirical Study

Two studies investigated the effects of cognitive and school environmental factors on adolescents' creative performance. The first study tested the effects of expected evaluation and cognitive style on creativity among 89 high school students. The second study tested the effects of evaluation type and cognitive style on creativity among 92 high school students. Study 1 found main effects of expected evaluation and cognitive style on creativity. The interaction between expected evaluation and cognitive style was statistically significant. Under an experimental condition of expected evaluation, field‐dependent adolescents performed more creatively (i.e., higher originality) than those without expected evaluation. Study 2 uncovered main effects of expected evaluation type and cognitive style on creativity but no interactions between expected evaluation type and cognitive style. Adolescents performed better on the dimension of flexibility in a controlling evaluation condition, compared with adolescents in informational evaluation condition, and field‐independent adolescents showed more fluency and originality than field‐dependent adolescents. Together, this research provides a better understanding of the effects of expected evaluation and cognitive style on adolescents' creative performance. Implications for further research are discussed.     

Designing EEG Neurofeedback Procedures to Enhance Open-ended versus Closed-ended Creative Potentials

Recent empirical evidence demonstrated that open-ended creativity (which refers to creativity measures that require various and numerous responses, such as divergent thinking) correlated with alpha brain wave activation, whereas closed-ended creativity (which refers to creativity measures that ask for one final correct answer, such as insight problem solving) was related to larger variability in electroencephalogram (EEG) differences between alpha and beta waves. This study designed two EEG neurofeedback procedures to examine their training effects on open- versus closed-ended creative potentials. In the alpha-enhancement condition, participants were reinforced to elevate only their alpha frequencies by auditory feedback for 10 sessions. In the alpha-transformation condition, enhancement and suppression of the signal tone (and hence, the appearance and disappearance of alpha waves) were both practiced. Pre- and posttest comparisons indicated that, compared to the active contrast condition, the alpha-enhancement practice improved only open-ended creativity performance. The alpha-transformation training enhanced closed-ended creativity performance, which was first demonstrated in the literature, and simultaneously facilitated open-ended creativity performances. In addition, changes in brain wave patterns by training positively correlated with change in predicted creativity performances. All of these results were of medium to large effect sizes. The effectiveness of these EEG neurofeedback procedures for creativity training was implied and discussed.     

Creativity Under Concurrent and Sequential Task Conditions

Two experiments were conducted to investigate creativity for realistic divergent thinking problems, under concurrent and sequential task conditions (CTC and STC, respectively). Creativity was judged on divergence, novelty, appropriateness, and fluency of solutions. Results of Experiment I revealed that creativity was significantly higher under CTC than under STC. Embedded Figures Test was employed to rule out a possible alternative explanation that better performance under CTC is due to difference in creative potential between individuals participating under the two task conditions. Experiment II employed a control group to investigate whether difference in creative performance under the two conditions is due to a facilitation effect or a distraction effect, as compared to the control condition. Results showed a significant distraction effect under STC, and indicated, though not significant, a facilitation effect under CTC. Findings are understood in light of the associative theories of creativity, which highlight the role of attentional mechanisms in the creative process. Some indexes for measuring creative performance on realistic divergent thinking tasks are validated against conventional measures.     

多巴胺相关基因甲基化、家庭环境与创造力的关系

“遗传与环境”的争论一直是创造力研究的核心问题, 但目前对于环境以及遗传与环境交互作用对创造力影响的分子生物机制还未有研究涉及。近年来, 随着表观遗传学的兴起, 揭示影响心理行为的表观遗传机制现已成为心理学研究的热点。作为环境与基因组之间的纽带, 表观遗传学研究为揭示环境以及遗传与环境交互作用对创造力影响的分子生物机制提供了机遇。本研究以多巴胺相关基因、家庭环境以及两者对于创造力的交互作用为切入点, 对影响创造力的表观遗传机制进行考察, 并在此基础之上, 对环境以及遗传与环境交互作用对创造力影响的分子生物机制进行探索。具体研究内容包括：(1)通过对多巴胺相关基因甲基化模式与创造力关系的系统考察, 筛选出甲基化模式与创造力有关的基因; (2)对筛选出的基因, 进一步考察其甲基化模式在家庭环境及其遗传多态性与家庭环境交互作用对创造力影响中的中介作用。本研究有助于揭示创造力的表观遗传机制, 深化关于遗传与环境对创造力影响的作用机制的理解。     

绩效薪酬对雇员创造力的影响:人-工作匹配和创造力自我效能的作用

采用296对上下级匹配数据考察了绩效薪酬对创造力的影响以及人-工作匹配的调节效应和创造力自我效能的中介效应。研究结果表明:绩效薪酬对创造力有倒U形影响;创造力自我效能部分中介了绩效薪酬对创造力的倒U形影响;人-工作匹配调节绩效薪酬与创造力的关系,人-工作匹配度越高,中等强度绩效薪酬的正面效应越强,高强度绩效薪酬的负面效应越弱;绩效薪酬与人-工作匹配的交互效应通过创造力自我效能的完全中介效应影响创造力。