Brainstorming rules as assigned goals: Does brainstorming really improve idea quantity?

In two experiments (n = 264 and 339), I treat brainstorming rules as assigned goals and compare their effectiveness to that of quantity goals as interventions to improve the number of ideas generated by individuals. Controlling for goal commitment, I find that brainstorming rules alone do not convey an advantage over even a vague quantity goal presented alone for enhancing the number of ideas generated in two common tasks. Detailed contrasts revealed that specific, difficult goals were only partially effective on their own, as expected when goal commitment is moderate. However, I find evidence in both studies that brainstorming rules are useful adjuncts to specific, difficult quantity goals. Importantly, their combination was the only consistently effective improvement over both vague quantity goals and brainstorming rules presented alone. I discuss implications for future research adopting a goal-based view of intervention in idea generation.

Changes in brain activation induced by the training of hypothesis generation skills: an fMRI study

The aim of the present study is to investigate the learning-related changes in brain activation induced by the training of hypothesis generation skills regarding biological phenomena. Eighteen undergraduate participants were scanned twice with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) before and after training over a period of 2 months. The experimental group underwent eight biological hypothesis generation training programs, but the control group was not given any during the 2-month period. The results showed that the left frontal gyri, the cingulate gyrus, and the cuneus were activated during hypothesis generation. In addition, the brain activation of the trained group increased in the left inferior and the superior frontal gyri, which are related to working memory load and higher-order inferential processes. However, the activation after training decreased in the occipito-parietal route, which is associated with the perception and the analysis processes of visual information. Furthermore, the results have suggested that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) region is the critical area in the training of hypothesis generation skills.     

计算机自动化项目生成概述

近年来,计算机自动化项目生成作为应对测验项目曝光问题的很具前景的一项技术,逐渐得到越来越多研究者的重视。这种技术是以认知心理学和心理测量学为基础,在测试过程中借助计算机自动生成目标难度水平的项目。该文首先简要介绍了这种技术的理论基础和两种具体方法,然后以项目设计系统法为例说明自动化项目生成研究的具体步骤与优点,最后评述了这种技术的局限性及未来的发展趋势     

瑞文测验项目认知难度因素分析及LLTM拟合验证

该文在以认知和测量相结合为特征的新一代测验理论的指导下,针对项目刺激特征,对影响瑞文测验项目认知难度的因素进行了分析,提取出图块繁简度、整体布局、变化维度和题序等4个因素,然后应用线性逻辑潜在特质模型（LLTM）对这四个因素进行了拟合检验,结果证明提取出的四个因素是有效的。文章还进一步探讨了研究结果在智力测验中的应用。     

关键词对精加工推理的影响作用初探

本实验研究在文本中突出关键词对精加工推理的产生水平和产生阶段的影响。研究采用了让被试阅读后做测试题的方法,通过分析测试题的成绩得出的结果表明：在文章中突出关键词有助于产生近推理和内涵推理,且使这两类推理更有可能在阅读过程中产生。本研究补充了McDaniel和Donnelly 1996年的研究结果。     

Use of current explanations in multicausal abductive reasoning

In multicausal abductive tasks a person must explain some findings by assembling a composite hypothesis that consists of one or more elementary hypotheses. If there are n elementary hypotheses, there can be up to 2ⁿ composite hypotheses. To constrain the search for hypotheses to explain a new observation, people sometimes use their current explanation—the previous evidence and their present composite hypothesis of that evidence; however, it is unclear when and how the current explanation is used. In addition, although a person's current explanation can narrow the search for a hypothesis, it can also blind the problem solver to alternative, possibly better, explanations. This paper describes a model of multicausal abductive reasoning that makes two predictions regarding the use of the current explanation. The first prediction is that the current explanation is not used to explain new evidence if there is a simple (i.e., nondisjunctive, concrete) hypothesis to account for that evidence. The second prediction is that the current explanation is used when attempting to discriminate among several alternative hypotheses for new evidence. These hypotheses were tested in three experiments. The results are consistent with the second prediction: the current explanation is used when discriminating among alternative hypotheses. However, the first prediction—that the current explanation is not used when a simple hypothesis can account for new data—received only limited support. Participants used the current explanation to constrain their interpretation of new data in 46.5% of all trials. This suggests that context-independent strategies compete with context-dependent ones—an interpretation that is consistent with recent work on strategy selection during problem solving.     

Thinking “Outside the Box”: Unconstrained Creative Generation in Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Creative generation is structured around existing knowledge and task examples, yet overreliance on specific examples may limit imagination (Ward, T. B., Finke, R. A., & Smith, S. M., 1995). The constraining influence of knowledge during creative generation may be offset by conceptual expansion, a process of thinking outside traditional conceptual boundaries, which may be heightened by distractibility and mild executive dysfunction (Abraham, A., Windmann, S., Daum, I., & Güntürkün, O., 2005). The present study explored the constraining effects of knowledge in adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a disorder characterized by impaired attention and inhibitory control (Barkley, R. A., 1997). College students with and without ADHD were compared on two creative generation measures: an alien fruit invention task that required participants to imagine fruit that might exist on another planet (Ward, T.B., 1994), and a product label invention task wherein the goal was to invent product names without using elements of task examples (Kray, L.J., Galinski, A.D. & Wong, E.M., 2006). ADHD participants created alien fruit that diverged more from Earth fruit and labels that conformed less to examples, relative to non-ADHD peers. Results suggest that adults with ADHD may be less constrained by knowledge during creative generation. Findings are discussed in terms of theoretical import and practical implications for individuals with ADHD.     

The oral and written side of word production in young and older adults: generation of lexical neighbors

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of aging on both spoken and written word production by using analogous tasks. To do so, a phonological neighbor generation task (Experiment 1) and an orthographic neighbor generation task (Experiment 2) were designed. In both tasks, young and older participants were given a word and had to generate as many words as they could think of by changing one phoneme in the target word (Experiment 1) or one letter in the target word (Experiment 2). The data of the two experiments were consistent, showing that the older adults generated fewer lexical neighbors and made more errors than the young adults. For both groups, the number of words produced, as well as their lexical frequency, decreased as a function of time. These data strongly support the assumption of a symmetrical age-related decline in the transmission of activation within the phonological and orthographic systems.     

The Emerging Gender Gap: Cultural and Economic Conservatism in the Netherlands 1970–1992

Research on gender differences in political alignments and cultural orientations in the past decades reveals a large value change in women relative to that in men, indicating that women might recently have become less conservative than men, whereas women used to be more conservative in many respects. In this article this possible reversal in the gender gap in recent decades is analyzed. Recent research has demonstrated that in the Netherlands women are presently less conservative than men. This lower level of conservatism in Dutch women is apparent with respect to both economic and cultural issues. It is investigated whether these gender differences are due to a reversal in the gender gap in the Netherlands and if so, how this emerging gender gap can be explained. Three explanations are hypothesized: one in terms of the characteristics of the youngest generations (the gender-cohort model), the second in terms of growing structural equality between women and men in general (the situational/structural model), and a specification of the second model, in which differential effects of structural factors for women and men are presumed to have their effect (the gender-interaction model). Neither of the three tested models was in itself able to fully explain the results. The gender gap can partly be explained by growing structural equality between women and men, partly by the fact that the gender gap is largest in the youngest generations (economic conservatism), and partly by the fact that the gender gap is largest between groups of "independent" women and their male counterparts. Possible additional determinants are also discussed.