Construct validity of a personality assessment game in a simulated selection situation and the moderating roles of the ability to identify criteria and dispositional insight

There is scant research on the validity of personality assessment games in selection situations. Therefore, in two experimental simulated selection studies, the construct validity of an assessment game developed to assess honesty-humility was tested. Both studies found no differences between a control condition and a simulated selection condition on honesty-humility game scores. Moreover, convergent and discriminant validity with self-reported personality were not affected by the manipulation. We obtained mixed evidence that individual differences in dispositional insight and the ability to identify criteria influenced the validity of the game. As the validity of the personality assessment game was not significantly affected in the simulated selection context, our findings may imply that well-designed personality assessment games can be used for high-stakes selection assessments.     

Modelling multiple problem-solving strategies and strategy shift in cognitive diagnosis for growth

Problem-solving strategies, defined as actions people select intentionally to achieve desired objectives, are distinguished from skills that are implemented unintentionally. In education, strategy-oriented instructions that guide students to form problem-solving strategies are found to be more effective for low-achieving students than the skill-oriented instructions designed for enhancing their skill implementation ability. Although the existing longitudinal cognitive diagnosis models (CDMs) can model the change in students' dynamic skill mastery status over time, they are not designed to model the shift in students' problem-solving strategies. This study proposes a longitudinal CDM that considers both between-person multiple strategies and within-person strategy shift. The model, separating the strategy choice process from the skill implementation process, is intended to provide diagnostic information on strategy choice as well as skill mastery status. A simulation study is conducted to evaluate the parameter recovery of the proposed model and investigate the consequences of ignoring the presence of multiple strategies or strategy shift. Further, an empirical data analysis is conducted to illustrate the use of the proposed model to measure strategy shift, growth in skill implementation ability and skill mastery status.     

The Effects of Leader Support for Creativity and Leader Gender on Subordinate Creative Problem-Solving Performance

Ample correlational research shows that leader support for creativity is related to subordinate creativity, yet research examining the causality of this relationship experimentally is scant. Furthermore, most studies that demonstrate support for this relationship have used relatively subjective creativity measures that do not tap as effectively into the creative problem-solving process. Thus, we experimentally examined whether leader support for creativity affects subordinate creative problem-solving performance. We also examined whether this relationship depends on leader gender. We used experimental vignette methodology and a sample of 247 working adults to test these relationships. We found that high (vs. low) leader support for creativity resulted in a significantly higher number of ideas generated. Additionally, posthoc analyses showed that high (vs. low) leader support for creativity resulted in a significantly higher number of original ideas and higher number of quality ideas generated. We also found that when the leader was a woman (vs. man), average originality of ideas was significantly higher. We found no significant interactive effects of leader support for creativity and leader gender. We discuss how this study further elucidates our understanding of leader support for creativity, as well as avenues for future creativity research involving leader gender.     

Social problem-solving in dual diagnosis patients

Social problem-solving skills among dual-diagnosis patients were compared to two control groups: psychiatric patients without substance abuse problems and community volunteers. A standardized, behavioral role-play test consisting of four scenarios representing interpersonal problems yielded two reliable dependent variables: (a) specificity, or elaboration, of the problem-solving response and (b) overall effectiveness of the response. Analyses of covariance (using a measure of intellectual function as the covariate) indicated that both dual-diagnosis patients and psychiatric controls were significantly poorer problem-solvers than were community controls. The overall pattern of the results indicated that deficits observed in a dual-diagnosis sample are not necessarily compounded due to the presence of the coexisting disorders. Implications of these findings, strengths and limitations of this study, and suggestions for future research are discussed.This research was supported in part by Grant DA04593-01 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.Portions of this article were presented at the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy during November 1988 in New York.     

Removal of an obstacle: Problem-solving behavior in pigeons

The importance of a subject's personal history in the solution of an obstruction problem was demonstrated with pigeons. Four birds were trained to peck a key located outside the chamber by poking their heads through an opening in a screen. During tests, a white block was placed in front of the opening, so that it was not possible to peck the key without removing the block. All birds failed to remove the block. However, all birds that were subsequently trained to push the white block around the chamber in the absence of the key and a few of the birds trained similarly but with a black block solved the problem by pushing the block aside and pecking the key. One bird showed the abrupt descent in the learning curve that has been considered a characteristic of “insightful” problem solving. All birds maintained their successful performance after a 1-month interval with no intervening tests.     

The Experience of Insight Facilitates Long-Term Semantic Priming in the Right Hemisphere

While past research has demonstrated a link between the subjective “Aha” experience of insight and verbal insight problem solution activation in the right hemisphere (RH), no one has yet linked insight to long term semantic priming. We propose that through a shared process of semantic integration both of these concepts are linked and thus the experience of insight should facilitate semantic priming in the RH. Participants attempted to solve a group of compound remote associate problems and afterwards completed a lexical decision task. The results showed that the experience of insight facilitated semantic priming in the RH, but only for unsolved compound remote associate problems. It was also shown that participants who indicated that they generated more solutions through insight that were incorrect demonstrated the most semantic priming in the RH. These results indicate that long-term semantic priming can occur as a result of insight solutions, and that this activation occurs predominantly in the RH. This study extends both the evidence for long-lasting semantic priming as well the theory of coarse semantic coding in the RH.     

Moment of Truth: Why Aha! Experiences are Correct

Having a sudden insight is often associated with inherent confidence, enough for Archimedes to run naked through the streets shouting “Eureka!”. Recent evidence demonstrates that public displays of enthusiasm, such as the ancient polymath's, are actually supported by a higher likelihood of being correct.     

顿悟的大脑机制

自从柯勒1917年提出顿悟的概念以来,这个问题一直吸引着心理学家的关注。但有关顿悟过程的精确的大脑机制却始终未被触及。从心理过程上看,顿悟是一个瞬间实现的、问题解决视角的“新旧交替”过程;它包含两个方面,一是新的有效的问题解决思路如何实现,二是旧的无效的思路如何被抛弃（即打破思维定势）。我们以谜语作为材料,利用功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）技术精确记录了人类的大脑在实现顿悟的一瞬间的活动状况。结果显示顿悟过程激活了包括额叶、颞叶、扣带前回、以及海马在内的广泛脑区。根据各方面的综合证据,本文认为：顿悟过程中,新异而有效的联系的形成依赖于海马,问题表征方式的有效转换依赖于一个“非语言的” 视觉空间信息加工网络,而思维定势的打破与转移则依赖于扣带前回与左腹侧额叶。     

创造性研究的有效工具——远距离联想测验（RAT）

介绍了一个测量创造力的方法——远距离联想测验（remoteassociatestest,RAT）,并将它与其他创造性测验方法进行比较。文章还介绍了应用RAT进行的一些创造性科学研究的成果。作者认为RAT是适合创造性科学研究,尤其是神经科学研究的重要工具