中学生发散思维能力培养的实验研究

本研究以初中一年级学生为被试 ,对学生进行发散性思维训练 ,探讨培养中学生创造力的可行性及有效措施。研究结果表明 :对中学生进行发散思维训练是可行的 ,学生在流畅力、精进力、变通力、独创力等方面都有所进步。另外 ,实验还考察了发散思维训练对推理能力和学习成绩的影响 ,结果未发现明显作用     

Effects of Movement Improvisation and Aerobic Dancing on Motor Creativity and Divergent Thinking

Creativity is considered to be an embodied concept, where internal psychological and external behavioral processes are intertwined. Creativity enhancement programs often target the cognitive side of this bi‐dimensionality leaving the impact of motor interventions underexplored. To address this gap in the literature, we tested the effectiveness of two motor programs on motor creativity and divergent thinking (verbal and figural). A total of 92 college students (M_age = 25.36, SD = 2.66) were randomly allocated to a movement improvisation, an aerobic dance, or a control condition. Participants in both motor programs took part in ten 30‐minute classes twice a week over a period of 5 weeks. The findings revealed a significant effect of the motor programs on motor fluency and flexibility. Movement improvisation yielded the greatest effects on those variables, followed by aerobic dancing and control condition. Movement improvisation also impacted significantly more figural originality than the control condition. However, the effects were limited to the motor domain and failed to transfer into other divergent thinking variables. The findings highlighted the contribution of movement programs to creative potential development, and the imperative role of a non‐judgmental environment, where individuals are free to move spontaneously.     

On the Conceptual Overlap between the Fluency Contamination Effect in Divergent Thinking Scores and the Chance View on Scientific Creativity

The equal odds baseline is a parsimonious model that describes the relationship between quantity and quality of output in scientific creativity. Specifically, it is posited that quality is a linear function of quantity, and therefore, strong positive correlations between these two variables are expected. Strong positive correlations also play a crucial role in a recurring issue in divergent thinking research: the fluency contamination effect. This effect refers to the problem that any other summative scoring of divergent thinking tests such as the number of original responses (i.e., quality of responses) is confounded by fluency (i.e., quantity of responses). The current work sheds further light into the conceptual overlap between the equal odds baseline, and the fluency contamination effect by demonstrating that a recent formalization of the fluency contamination effect can be used to derive the equal odds baseline. This result is then utilized within a structural equation modeling approach with simulated datasets to thoroughly examine the equal odds baseline. The findings of the structural equation modeling approach are discussed with respect to their potential to better understand the relationship between quantity and quality of productions in creativity research.     

Strategy Induction Enhances Creativity in Figural Divergent Thinking

Instructional effects in creative‐thinking tasks are important to understand in order to promote creative performance of individuals. In divergent‐thinking tasks, for example, instructional and strategic enhancement effects have been extensively studied for verbal tasks. However, while studies on instructional enhancement effects on creative drawing tasks exist, it is surprising that strategy enhancement in figural divergent thinking is still underresearched. In this study, we used a strategy manipulation approach to reassess the role of executive strategy implementation and the moderating role of an indicator of fluid intelligence, figural analogical reasoning, in two types of figural divergent‐thinking tasks (abstract vs. concrete). The sample comprised N = 75 high‐school students. Importantly, we found strategic enhancement effects by combining strategy instructions with a prompt to “be creative.” This combined instruction was contrasted with a standard instruction, and main effects were found for overall, concrete, and abstract creativity. Moreover, we found in a regression analysis a main effect for figural analogical reasoning on overall creativity and creativity for only the concrete object tasks. An expected interaction effect of instruction and figural analogical reasoning was not found. As another addition, the role of current motivation in figural divergent thinking was explored.     

Scientific Creativity: Divergent and Convergent Thinking and the Impact of Culture

This paper examines the contrast and distinction between divergent and convergent scientific creativity, and the paradoxical relationship of scientific creativity with cultural factors in elementary students. With a newly developed measure of potential for scientific creativity, EPoC Science (Lubart et al., in press), students produce ideas in response to scientific problems, and both divergent‐exploratory as well as convergent‐integrative processes involved in scientific creativity are analyzed. An empirical study (n = 118) was conducted in France with elementary school children (ages 7–10). The divergent‐exploratory task was scored for fluency and statistical uniqueness. For the convergent‐integrative task, the number of concepts that a student integrated and synthesized, and the originality of the synthesis were scored. Results showed that divergent and convergent task performances were weakly related to each other. This suggests that divergence and convergence are two relatively distinct processes for scientific creativity, and that the relation is more complex than commonly assumed. In terms of culture‐related variables, immigrant cultural background (number of family members born outside of France) was significantly and negatively correlated with the originality of divergent and convergent scientific creativity. Findings are discussed and educational implications are proposed.     

The Machines Take Over: A Comparison of Various Supervised Learning Approaches for Automated Scoring of Divergent Thinking Tasks

Traditionally, researchers employ human raters for scoring responses to creative thinking tasks. Apart from the associated costs this approach entails two potential risks. First, human raters can be subjective in their scoring behavior (inter-rater-variance). Second, individual raters are prone to inconsistent scoring patterns (intra-rater-variance). In light of these issues, we present an approach for automated scoring of Divergent Thinking (DT) Tasks. We implemented a pipeline aiming to generate accurate rating predictions for DT responses using text mining and machine learning methods. Based on two existing data sets from two different laboratories, we constructed several prediction models incorporating features representing meta information of the response or features engineered from the response’s word embeddings that were obtained using pre-trained GloVe and Word2Vec word vector spaces. Out of these features, word embeddings and features derived from them proved to be particularly effective. Overall, longer responses tended to achieve higher ratings as well as responses that were semantically distant from the stimulus object. In our comparison of three state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms, Random Forest and XGBoost tended to slightly outperform the Support Vector Regression.     

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。     

The Effects of Modafinil on Convergent and Divergent Thinking of Creativity: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Modafinil is a drug licensed for the treatment of narcolepsy and sleep apnea. Recently, modafinil has been reported to be used as a pharmacological cognitive enhancer by healthy individuals with no psychiatric disorders. This paper reports on a study that investigated the effects of modafinil on divergent and convergent thinking tasks of creativity. Sixty‐four healthy male (n = 31) and female (n = 33) volunteers participated in a randomized double‐blind placebo‐controlled parallel group design study. For the convergent thinking tasks, modafinil had no significant main effect on the Group Embedded Figures Task and the Remote Associates Task (RAT). However, a median split analysis showed that modafinil participants low in creativity personality trait had significantly higher RAT scores (Mean [M] = 6.85, SD = 3.39; 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 5.53–8.2) than those high in creativity personality trait (M = 4.27, SD = 3.0; 95% CI: 2.4–6.0). For the divergent thinking tasks, relative to placebo (M = 1.195, SD = 0.28; 95% CI: 1.0–1.3), modafinil (M = 0.77, SD = 0.37; 95% CI: 0.63–0.92) significantly reduced the performance of flexibility scores and marginally reduced the elaboration scores as measured by the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA). Overall, participants on modafinil (M = 6.3, SD = 2.6; 95% CI: 5.3–7.4) had significantly lower ATTA scores relative to participants on placebo (M = 9.5, SD = 2.3; 95% CI: 8.6–10.4). These results indicate that modafinil might reduce divergent thinking of creativity in healthy individuals. They suggest that, rather than being a more general cognitive enhancer, modafinil might have negative and subtle effects on creativity. However, the results are from a small‐scale trial, which tested a small number of participants. Therefore, the results need to be interpreted with caution. A replication with a large sample of participants is recommended.     

Application of Latent Semantic Analysis to Divergent Thinking is Biased by Elaboration

Scoring divergent‐thinking response sets has always been challenging because such responses are not only open‐ended in terms of number of ideas, but each idea may also be expressed by a varying number of concepts and, thus, by a varying number of words (elaboration). While many current studies have attempted to score the semantic distance in divergent‐thinking responses by applying latent semantic analysis (LSA), it is known from other areas of research that LSA‐based approaches are biased according to the number of words in a response. Thus, the current article aimed to identify and demonstrate this elaboration bias in LSA‐based divergent‐thinking scores by means of a simulation. In addition, we show that this elaboration bias can be reduced by removing the stop words (for example, and, or, for and so forth) prior to analysis. Furthermore, the residual bias after stop word removal can be reduced by simulation‐based corrections. Finally, we give an empirical illustration for alternate uses and consequences tasks. Results suggest that when both stop word removal and simulation‐based bias correction are applied, convergent validity should be expected to be highest.     

The Usual and the Unusual: Solving Remote Associates Test Tasks Using Simple Statistical Natural Language Processing Based on Language Use

In this study we show how complex creative relations can arise from fairly frequent semantic relations observed in everyday language. By doing this, we reflect on some key cognitive aspects of linguistic and general creativity. In our experimentation, we automated the process of solving a battery of Remote Associates Test tasks. By applying Statistical Natural Language Processing techniques to a large web‐based corpus, we perform a frequency and collocation analysis of the test items. Results show that 37% of the 68 tasks were automatically solved, whereas human accuracy reached 43%. Our method outperformed humans in the tasks rated as difficult: 38% and 32%, respectively. Highly relevant is that the novel and adequate relations established in order to solve the RAT were not previously present in the corpus. The frequency based approach pervades all stages of our method: during the divergent stage, highly frequent collocations are listed, while the convergent stage starts by matching each task's triads output, shrinking that list, and finalizing it by choosing the least frequent, therefore more informative and often correct, result. Finally, we discuss the implications of our model in overcoming functional fixedness and understanding cognitive salience in the creative process.     

Instructions Moderate the Relationship between Creative Performance in Figural Divergent Thinking and Reasoning Capacity

In this study with within-subject design, the “be-creative effect” was investigated using three instructions in figural divergent-thinking tasks: Besides a be-fluent instruction, a be-creative instruction, and a be-creative instruction combined with strategies were applied. In addition, reasoning ability as part of fluid intelligence, self-reported creative ideation, current motivation after reading the instructions, and task-related interest were assessed. Multilevel analysis applying random-intercept-constant-slope models found significant main effects of the instructions on creative performance and fluency. Both be-creative instructions yielded a rise in creative performance in divergent thinking tasks with additional improvement due to supporting strategies. The be-fluent instruction enhanced the quantity of ideas but decreased creative performance. Task-related interest turned out to be a better predictor of creative performance than the self-estimated expected interest prior to working on the task. Moreover, the relationship of creative performance and reasoning ability was moderated by instruction, with no relationship with a be-fluent instruction and small to moderate positive effects with both instructions emphasizing creative ideas.     

才思泉涌“举步”间：体育运动对创造性思维的影响

创造性思维是运用独特且新颖的观点解决问题的思维形式,发散与聚合思维是两种常见的类型。体育运动对发散与聚合思维具有不同的影响,且受到运动强度、方式、时长以及个体差异等因素的调节。目前解释体育运动如何影响创造性思维的理论有情绪假说、执行功能假说与身心隐喻理论。未来的研究需要在进一步重视研究规范性的基础上,加强神经科学研究并拓宽群体覆盖面,关注体育运动与创造性成就的关系,为开具创造性思维运动处方提供有力的科学支持。     

The (Dis)Pleasures of Creativity: Spontaneous Eye Blink Rate during Divergent and Convergent Thinking Depends on Individual Differences in Positive and Negative Affect

Previous research has demonstrated that individual differences in affect and motivation predict divergent and convergent thinking performance, two thinking processes involved in creative idea generation. Individual differences in affect and motivation also predict spontaneous eye blink rate (sEBR) during divergent and convergent thinking; and sEBR predicts divergent and convergent thinking performance. This study investigates experimentally whether the relationship between sEBR and divergent and convergent thinking depends on individual differences in affect and motivation. Eighty-two participants completed the Emotion/motivation-related Divergent and Convergent thinking styles Scale (EDICOS; G. Soroa et al., 2015), performed the alternative uses task (AUT; divergent thinking) or the remote associates task (RAT; convergent thinking), while their sEBR was captured with an eye-tracker. The results showed that individual differences in positive affect positively correlated with sEBR for the AUT, whereas individual differences in negative affect positively correlated with sEBR for the RAT. Furthermore, the interaction between individual differences in positive and negative affect and sEBR predicted divergent and convergent thinking performance. The contribution of our study is therefore that individual differences in positive and negative affect can both positively correlate with sEBR during divergent and convergent thinking; and that this predicts divergent and convergent thinking performance.     

Information,Experience, and Divergent Thinking: An Empirical Test

ABSTRACT: Divergent thinking tests are often used to estimate the potential for creative problem solving. Scores on these tests may, however, reflect a kind of experiential bias. Similar biases once plagued IQ tests, the idea being that scores reflect the individual's background and information in long-term memory as much as ability per se. The investigation reported here attempted to assess the role of experience, knowledge, and memory in divergent thinking by comparing 2 kinds of tasks. One was a standard divergent thinking task (e.g., "list uses for a shoe," "uses for a brick," "uses for a newspaper"). The other allowed a number of responses but required that the examinee produce factual, knowledge- based responses. A second objective here was to compare standard- and knowledge-based ideation with tasks that shared 1 domain (e.g., transportation) with tasks that did not share a domain. Results indicated that there was a statistically significant correlation between the 2 types of tasks but only when they shared 1 domain. This was confirmed with product–moment correlations (r = .37, p = .025) and a canonical correlation (Rc = .69, p = 008). The correlations were not significant when the tasks represented different domains. It is interesting to note that both the knowledge-based and the standard divergent thinking tasks were unrelated to grade point average, which supports their discriminant validity. Limitations and directions for future research are suggested.     

小学三～五年级儿童创造性思维训练的实验研究

研究表明学龄儿童已具有一定的创造力 ,因此要重视并激发儿童的创造活动。本研究在前人研究的基础上 ,自编了一套创造性思维训练题 ,并设计了传统讲授教学法和促进、诱导学生自我发现的发现法二种训练方法 ,同时与未经训练的对照组比较 ,考察了小学三～五年级儿童创造性思维的几个维度和总体水平上在训练前后的变化。结果表明 :经过一个学期的短期训练 ,无论在创造性思维的不同维度上还是在总体水平上 ,都对小学儿童产生了显著的影响 ,而所设计的二种训练方法在短期效果上没有明显差异。     

作业时间和指导语导向对10-12岁儿童发散性思维的影响

研究者以239名10岁、11岁和12岁的儿童为实验对象,采用四种作业时间(2分钟、4分钟、6分钟和8分钟)和两种指导语导向(无导向、导向独特性)为实验条件,考察了这些条件对儿童发散性思维的影响.结果发现,作业时间和指导语导向对儿童发散性思维的流畅性,变通性和独特性均有明显的影响.在该实验条件下,发散性思维的三个指标随作业时间的增加而增加.有导向组儿童的发散性思维作业成绩显著高于无导向组.另外,在各实验条件下,儿童的作业成绩都有随着年龄的增长而上升的趋势.     

The Devil Is in the Details: Why the Answer to Most Questions About Creativity Will Always Be “It Depends”

“Creativity” is an abstract concept. To make progress, creativity research needs to think about creativity in more concrete ways.     

Relating Personality and Creativity: Considering What and How We Measure

Creativity is a complex construct that is conceptualized and measured in multiple ways. This study examined the relationship between creativity and personality taking this into account. It was hypothesized that applying different conceptions and measures would cause variation in the creativity–personality relationship. The participants (N = 224) were undergraduate students and completed six creativity measures, a personality inventory, and a demographic questionnaire. Personality predicted more creative production (R² = .277) than creative potential (R² = .176) and more self‐reported creativity (R² = .348) than that which was externally rated (R² = .149). Openness was most consistently and strongly related to creativity, but other personality factors varied in their influence and some demonstrated suppression effects. Overall, the results suggest that despite relatively small effects of personality on creativity, there appear to be meaningful differences in the relationships depending on conception and measurement. Implications for educational settings and future research are discussed.     

Recent advances in the psychology of creativity / Avances recientes en psicología de la creatividad

Abstract

This introduction to Studies in Psychology presents a collection of theoretical and empirical works covering various areas of research into the psychology of creativity. This issue contains five articles that present theories or review evidence regarding various approaches to creativity and three articles that are empirical reports. The articles cover a broad range of topics related to the psychology of creativity. Thus, this collection of articles highlights the fact that research into creativity expands our basic understanding of the functioning of the mind, has an impact on other related areas of psychological research and has an increasing number of applications.