Knowledge Discovery as an Aid to Organizational Creativity

Computers can play an important role in the creative process. With the abundance of data and increasing speed of computers, creativity can now be stimulated and enhanced with knowledge mined from available data. The process is known as knowledge discovery or data mining. Knowledge discovery is the process of discovering interesting associations among data in the database. Users in the creativity process can feed on the discovered associations to generate creative solutions. The objective of this paper is to present knowledge discovery as an aid to creativity. The paper first presents the concept of knowledge discovery and then discusses the various techniques in knowledge discovery. Mednick's associative theory of creative thought serves as the theoretical foundation for this research.     

Those who laugh are defenseless: how humor breaks resistance to influence

Three experiments illustrate that humor in advertisements prevents the development of negative brand associations due to resistance. Previous research on humor in advertising suggested that humor can counter negative responses during ad processing, but less is known about the effect of humor on the development of negative brand associations in memory. Brand associations are important because there is often a time delay between ad exposure and brand decisions. We separately manipulated two typical aspects of humor processing, that is, distraction and positive affect, and examined their effects on the development of respectively negative and positive brand associations. All experiments were conducted with university students as participants. The results showed that resistance causes negative brand associations (Experiments 1 and 2), and humor prevents the development of these negative brand associations more than nondistracting positive stimuli and neutral stimuli (Experiment 2 and 3). The prevention of negative brand associations was caused by the distractive properties of humor. Irrespective of resistance, the positive affect engendered by humor enhanced positive brand associations. Experiment 3 showed that distraction and positive affect in humor uniquely contribute to brand preference. Together, these results illustrate that the effect of humor on resistance follows a two-step process: humor forestalls the development of negative brand associations because of its distractive properties (cognitive mechanism), and engenders positive brand associations because of its positive emotional outcomes (affective mechanism). These effects of humor on brand associations jointly promote brand preference.     

Counter‐prejudicial training reduces activation of biased associations and enhances response monitoring

Although implicitly measured bias was once assumed to be highly stable, subsequent research has shown that it is, in fact, malleable. One technique for altering implicit bias is through counter‐prejudicial training. At least two broad mechanisms may drive this effect. First, training people to respond in counter‐prejudicial ways may diminish the extent to which biased associations are activated in memory. Second, training may strengthen processes that reduce the influence of biased associations on responses. Participants received either counter‐prejudicial, pro‐prejudicial, or no training and then completed an implicit measure of bias. Application of the quadruple process model revealed support for both mechanisms: Counter‐prejudicial training produced less activation of biased associations as well as enhanced detection of appropriate responses compared with pro‐prejudicial or no training. Implications for the development of bias‐reduction training are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Implicit bias in impression formation: associations influence the construal of individuating information

The present research investigated the influence of group‐related evaluative associations on the process of impression formation. In particular, we expected the impact of a target's category membership on the construal of ambiguous behaviour to be moderated by perceivers' evaluative associations related to the target category. Associative strength was further expected to have an indirect effect on dispositional inference, mediated by its impact on behaviour identification. Results support both of these assumptions. Moreover, the influence of evaluative associations on impression formation was not moderated by perceivers' motivation to control prejudiced reactions. Rather, motivation to control moderated only the relation between evaluative associations and the explicit endorsement of prejudiced beliefs about the target group in general, such that explicit prejudice endorsement was correlated with evaluative associations only for perceivers low, but not for those high in motivation to control. Implications for prejudice control are discussed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Residential mobility and the family context: A developmental approach

The goal of this study was to examine the links between residential mobility and the family context, whether these links varied across developmental periods (early childhood, middle childhood, or adolescence), and how they were associated with children's achievement and behavioral outcomes. Longitudinal data from a diverse sample of over 1000 U.S. children were used to explore family structure (marital and employment change), process (quality of the home and maternal sensitivity and depression), and residential mobility. Results of structural equation models indicated that associations between residential mobility and family structure and process varied across developmental periods, with significant links found for family process in early childhood and structure in middle childhood and adolescence. We found evidence of indirect associations between residential mobility and children's outcomes through family process in early childhood and of a direct association with internalizing behaviors in adolescence. We provide implications for programs and policies for residentially mobile children.     

Negative Numbers are not yet Automatically Associated with Space in 6th Graders

ABSTRACT

The metaphor of the mental number line accounts for numerous empirical effects of spatial-numerical associations. In the present study, we aimed at investigating directional spatial-numerical associations reflected by SNARC-like digit-direction and sign-direction congruency effects as well as the sign-digit compatibility effect when 6^th graders performed magnitude comparisons of multi-symbol numbers (i.e., positive and negative numbers). As spatial-numerical associations were associated with sensorimotor experiences, we used whole-body and finger tapping responses to manipulate the extent of motor responses. We only observed a SNARC-like digit-direction congruency effect, but neither a sign-direction congruency nor a sign-digit compatibility effect. This indicates that 6^th graders may already have developed spatial-numerical associations for absolute number magnitude, but not yet for polarity signs. Furthermore, not observing a sign-digit compatibility effect seemed to suggest that 6^th graders may not yet process multi-symbol numbers in the same parallel componential way as adults do. We argue that while 6^th graders are able to process negative numbers, they are not yet automatically associated with space or integrated in the place-value structure of the Arabic number system like multi-digit numbers are at this age.     

Definition of psychotherapy from a methodologic viewpoint

Psychotherapy is the psychological treatment of disturbed person-environment relationships, associations or connections which are learned in a lifelong process of socialization. Accordingly, psychotherapy is a process of learning for the patient and a process of educating for the therapeutist, a process which is controlled by specialists in the case of children as well as adults with serious psychic disorders and which is usually a means of self-education in the case of subjects with slight psychic disorders. The primary objective of psychotherapy is to modify both the attitude and behavior in the sense of improving a subject's ability to fulfill his duties in society.     

Bidirectional lexical-gustatory synesthesia

In developmental lexical–gustatory synesthesia, specific words (inducers) can trigger taste perceptions (concurrents) and these synesthetic associations are generally stable. We describe a case of multilingual lexical–gustatory synesthesia for whom some synesthesias were bidirectional as some tastes also triggered auditory word associations. Evoked concurrents could be gustatory but also tactile sensations. In addition to words and pseudowords, many voices were effective inducers, suggesting increased connections between cortical taste areas and both voice-selective and language-selective areas. Lasting changes in some evoked tastes occurred during childhood suggesting that some plasticity can be present after the initial learning of associations. Inducers were often linked to taste concurrents phonologically or semantically, but also through identifiable childhood episodes (persons or events). Several inducers were phonologically linked to episodic inducers suggesting a process of secondary acquisition for many inducers. Implications of these observations are discussed.     

Learning: Association or Computation? Introduction to a Special Section

The fundamental nature of learning is a central problem in psychology. Traditionally, psychologists have assumed that learning must involve the formation of associations. Early last century, the pioneering work of Pavlov on conditioned learning in animals seemed to put this assumption beyond doubt. More recently, many psychologists came to believe that a different kind of process must underlie complex learning, such as language learning in humans, and that this process must be described as computational rather than associative. Whether complex human learning is associative or computational continues to be a subject of intense research. The articles in this Special Section turn this debate on its head by asking whether simple animal learning is associative or computational. Surprisingly, the question is still very much open, and excitingly, it appears quite tractable.     

The organization of classical and instrumental conditional reactions

This paper makes a theoretical analysis of the process of formation of neural associations among sensory changes produced in the brain by environmental stimuli; it also analyzes the origin of classical and instrumental conditional reactions. It has been proposed that sensory traces of stimuli “intermingle,” forming patterns of associations in “polymodal” structures of the brain. The sensory traces of stronger stimulus dominate over the sensory traces of weaker stimulus in the pattern. An activation of a pattern of associations by any of the stimuli involved releases a reaction typical of the stronger stimulus (called a reinforcing or unconditional stimulus) before the latter is presented. That type of reaction, called classical conditional reaction, is dispensable; it is one of post-reinforcement origin and therefore, is not represented in the pattern of associations. When a physiological act, such as a definite movement (e.g., pressing a bar) must precede the obtaining of the reinforcing stimulus, this physiological act, called an instrumental conditional reaction, is also evoked each time the pattern of associations has been activated. The instrumental conditional reaction is indispensable and, because of its pre-reinforcement origin, belongs, through its sensory feedback, to the pattern of associations.     

The dynamics of personality and identity in adolescence

The present paper summarizes some of the key findings on the dynamics of personality and identity in adolescence by the author's research group. With regard to personality, we found evidence for a maturation process in which girls were ahead of boys. Being ahead or lagging behind with regard to this maturation process was found to be associated with internalizing and externalizing problems, respectively. We further identified which specific traits were associated with problem behaviour, and showed that these associations are bidirectional. With regard to identity, we showed that short-term fluctuations affect subsequent levels of identity dimensions. In addition, we uncovered a commitment–reconsideration dynamic that operates on a day-to-day level.     

Semantic memory retrieval: Analysis by speed accuracy tradeoff functions

Semantic memory retrieval for verifying category--example associations was tested by a speed accuracy tradeoff method: present the category for 2 s, present a correct or incorrect example followed, after a variable lag (0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1, 2, or 3 s), by a signal to make a “yes-no” response in about 0.2 s. Although the strength of the category--example association is higher for high dominance examples of a category, retrieval dynamics did not vary with dominance level. Recognition for category--example associations appears to be a direct-access (parallel) retrieval process. Priming a category by repeated testing of the same category over three consecutive trials had no effect on either asymptotic strength or retrieval dynamics. Partitioning into short, medium, and long latency responses at each lag produced microtradeoff functions which did not lie on the same macrotradeoff function. Retrieval dynamics were invariant with long-term practice.     

数字-空间联结的内在机制：基于工作记忆的视角

已有研究证实数字-空间联结是普遍存在的现象，但关于这种联结的解释仍存在争论。当前对数字-空间联结主要有两种解释。其中，心理数字线假设数字的心理表征是一条从左到右方向的水平线，而工作记忆假设认为数字-空间联结是任务执行期间暂时的工作记忆表征。本文通过分析心理数字线不能解释的数字-空间联结现象及局限性，来探讨工作记忆解释的适用性，并通过工作记忆的核心观点来解释数字-空间联结现象，以期更好地揭示数字-空间联结的内在机制。但关于工作记忆解释仍有亟待解决的问题，还需实证研究探讨。     

Word associations are formed incidentally during sentential semantic integration

Sentential context facilitates the incidental formation of word associations (e.g., Prior, A., & Bentin, S. (2003). Incidental formation of episodic associations: the importance of sentential context. Memory and Cognition, 31(2), 306-316). The present study explored the mechanism of this effect. In two experiments, unrelated word pairs were embedded in coherent or semantically anomalous sentences. Anomalous sentences included either a local or a global anomaly. During an incidental study phase, participants performed a sentence categorization task. The strength of the incidental associations formed between two nouns jointly appearing in a sentence was probed by gauging their influence on subsequent paired-associate learning and cued recall in Experiment 1, and by assessing their associative priming effect in a subsequent unexpected explicit recognition test for single words in Experiment 2. In both experiments, significant associative memory was found for noun pairs studied in coherent sentences but not for those appearing in anomalous sentences, regardless of anomaly type. In a sentence rating task, global anomalies yielded less plausible sentences than local anomalies, however both types of anomalies were equally detrimental to the sentence integration process. We suggest that sentence constituents are incidentally associated during sentence processing, particularly as a result of sentence integration and the consolidation of a mental model.     

Monitoring/Blunting and Social Support: Associations with Coping and Affect

The present study examined the associations of personal factors and social resources with coping and affective reactions to simulated stressful encounters. The study tested coping strategies and assessments of affect in the context of 'health' and 'work' threats described in 2 vignettes in a sample of 147 community residents. They also completed the Monitor-Blunter Style Scale (MBSS) and a perceived social support scale. The results showed positive associations between active coping and positive affect, and negative associations between avoidant coping and negative affect, replicating previous findings. Most interestingly, neither monitoring/blunting nor social support were directly related to either negative or positive affect, but were differentially related to coping strategies. Monitoring and social support were positively correlated with active coping and support-seeking in both vignettes, while blunting was related positively to avoidant coping, and social support was related negatively to this coping strategy. These results suggest that personal factors and social resources affect the use of coping strategies, rather than the affective reactions to threats, and contribute to our understanding of the stress and coping process.     

Influence of a depressant drug on acquisition in rote learning

Central depressant drugs have been shown to impair performance during learning and at recall. The experiment which is described was carried out to investigate whether the effect during learning is primarily on the availability of associations or on their formation. The learning decrement attributable to the drug used (30 per cent. nitrous oxide in oxygen) persisted on recovery from the drug and during subsequent learning under normal conditions. It is concluded that the effect of the drug is on acquisition rather than performance; that is, it acts so as to impede the formative process and does not merely obscure the progress of learning by blocking responses.     

汉语成语谜语问题解决中思路竞争的眼动研究

在谜语问题解决过程中, 可能存在着通过简单联想和新异联想寻找答案这两种思路。两个实验中设置了包括寻常答案与新颖答案在内的若干备择答案(实验1为4个, 实验2为6个)供被试选择, 利用眼动技术记录被试在解题过程中的不同时间段内对新颖答案与寻常答案的平均注视时间, 考察汉语成语谜语问题解决中两种思路之间冲突的过程。实验1操纵了任务要求, 实验2操纵了规则线索的有效性。实验结果表明：(1)在成语谜语问题解决中的一段时间内新异联想和简单联想能够同时发生且形成竞争; (2)选择“新颖且合适答案”的任务要求, 提高了成功形成新颖语义联结的概率, 但是并没有加快新异联想发生、发展的进程, 也没有改变两种思路相互竞争的局面; (3)有效的规则线索可以抑制简单联想, 阻止其发生, 同时可以加快新异联想发生、发展的进程。     

Disentangling the Mechanisms of Symbolic Number Processing in Adults’ Mathematics and Arithmetic Achievement

A growing body of research has shown that symbolic number processing relates to individual differences in mathematics. However, it remains unclear which mechanisms of symbolic number processing are crucial—accessing underlying magnitude representation of symbols (i.e., symbol‐magnitude associations), processing relative order of symbols (i.e., symbol‐symbol associations), or processing of symbols per se. To address this question, in this study adult participants performed a dots‐number word matching task—thought to be a measure of symbol‐magnitude associations (numerical magnitude processing)—a numeral‐ordering task that focuses on symbol‐symbol associations (numerical order processing), and a digit‐number word matching task targeting symbolic processing per se. Results showed that both numerical magnitude and order processing were uniquely related to arithmetic achievement, beyond the effects of domain‐general factors (intellectual ability, working memory, inhibitory control, and non‐numerical ordering). Importantly, results were different when a general measure of mathematics achievement was considered. Those mechanisms of symbolic number processing did not contribute to math achievement. Furthermore, a path analysis revealed that numerical magnitude and order processing might draw on a common mechanism. Each process explained a portion of the relation of the other with arithmetic (but not with a general measure of math achievement). These findings are consistent with the notion that adults’ arithmetic skills build upon symbol‐magnitude associations, and they highlight the effects that different math measures have in the study of numerical cognition.