Special issue on problem-solving,creativity and spatial reasoning

Problem-solving, creativity and spatial reasoning are high level abilities of cognitive systems with high potential for synergies. However, they have been treated separately by different fields. This special issue presents research work on these topics, aiming to observe their interrelations in order to create theoretical approaches, methodologies and computational tools to advance work on creativity and spatial problem-solving in cognitive systems.     

Using Wordle in Addictions Education

The authors of this article present a creative teaching strategy which illustrates how Wordle can be used in the addiction courses in counselor education programs. Wordle creates a representation of text where the more frequently the word is used, the larger the word appears in the form of a “word-cloud.” This method of graphically using words can illustrate meaning, perception, and change.     

创造力测评中的评分者效应

创造力测评中的评分者效应(rater effects)是指在创造性测评过程中, 由于评分者参与而对测评结果造成的影响.评分者效应本质上源于评分者内在认知加工的不同, 具体体现在其评分结果的差异.本文首先概述了评分者认知的相关研究, 以及评分者,创作者,社会文化因素对测评的影响.其次在评分结果层面梳理了评分者一致性信度的指标及其局限, 以及测验概化理论和多面Rasch模型在量化,控制该效应中的应用.最后基于当前研究仍存在的问题, 指出了未来可能的研究方向, 包括深化评分者认知研究,整合不同层面评分者效应的研究, 以及拓展创造力测评方法和技术等.     

Effects of Group Training in Problem‐Solving Style on Future Problem‐Solving Performance

Seventy‐five participants from one suburban high school formed 21 teams with 3–4 members each for the Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI). Students were selected to participate in either the regular FPSPI or an enhanced FPSPI, where multiple group training activities grounded in problem‐solving style were incorporated into a 9‐week treatment period. An ANCOVA procedure was used to examine the difference in team responses to a creative problem‐solving scenario for members of each group, after accounting for initial differences in creative problem‐solving performance, years of experience in FPSPI, and creative thinking related to fluency, flexibility, and originality. The ANCOVA resulted in a significant difference in problem‐solving performance in favor of students in the treatment group (F(1, 57) = 8.21, p = .006, partial eta squared = .126, medium), while there were no significant differences in years of experience or creativity scores. This result led researchers to conclude that students in both groups had equivalent creative ability and that participation in the group activities emphasizing problem‐solving style significantly contributed to creative performance.     

What determines creative association? Revealing two factors which separately influence the creative process when solving the Remote Associates Test

The Remote Associates Test is a well‐established measure, frequently used to assess individuals’ creative abilities, as a function of the ability to elicit remote associates. The nature of the involved associative processes is still poorly understood. This hampers a deeper understanding of the creative process, rendering it difficult to determine what factors are controlled for, when the RAT is employed. We report an experiment that sheds further light on the nature of the associative process by manipulating (a) the frequency with which a pair of items are associated as associative strength, and (b) the probability of reaching the answer given the strength and the spread. Experimental results indicate a clear and surprisingly separate influence of frequency and probability on accuracy and response times. Frequency and probability both are thus factors that need to be included in the modeling process and controlled for when using the RAT to assess creativity.     

Constraining or Constructive? The Effects of Examples on Idea Novelty

The tendency to conform to prior examples can be viewed as a form of mental fixation that has negative consequences and limits the scope and quality of designs. Two experiments using the Smith, S. M., Ward, T. B., & Schumacher, J. S. [(1993) Memory & Cognition, 21, 837‐845] toy invention task were conducted to determine whether participants who viewed example toys would subsequently generate toys rated as less novel compared to a control group viewing no examples. Although participants who viewed examples tended to incorporate the example features into their own ideas, the novelty of their ideas was rated as higher than those of the control group. This effect occurred both with no specific instruction regarding the examples (Experiment 1), as well as when specifically instructed to be different from the examples (Experiment 2). These results indicate that examples do not always have a negative impact on creativity, and suggest they may sometimes help lead to more unusual ideas.     

The Genius Dilemma: Fortune 1000 CEO Personality and Firm Innovation

Innovation is important to organizations’ long‐lasting success, yet many organizations fail to successfully promote innovation. One factor likely to bear an important influence on whether an organization successfully innovates, but that has received relatively little research attention, is the personality of the CEO. The present research examines the link between the personality of the CEO and product and service innovation in the firm using a unique sample of Fortune 1000 CEO's. Results show that conscientiousness in the CEO negatively predicts the level of innovation in the firm. Moreover, this relationship is evident among CEO's who have filled the CEO role for at least 3 years, but not among CEO's who have filled the CEO role for less than 3 years.     

Creative Reading in the Information Age: Paradoxes of Close and Distant Reading

This article reflects on transformations of modes of reading in an information age, asking what “creative reading” entails in information‐intensive, multimodal environments. We currently face the challenge of the development of reading strategies that oscillate between “close” and “distant” reading. For years, these reading strategies have been a topic of debate between practitioners of Digital Humanities on the one hand, and “traditional” humanists on the other. This ongoing polemics presents reading methods in an unnecessarily polarized manner. I argue that creativity research can be operationalized to come to a more productive model to characterize the ways we read in an information age. I show that the “schism” between close and distant reading is structured around a number of apparent paradoxes that I unravel such as hyper‐ and deep attention/attention and distraction, and convergence and divergence. The paradox of creativity resides in the fact that we find convergence in divergence and vice versa, that the two by definition intertwine. Building on these concepts, I propose a model that considers reading in terms of scale variance. I suggest the humanities turn to creativity research and the interrelations between divergent‐exploratory and convergent‐integrative thinking (Lubart), for a conceptual framework that will allow us to train students on all levels how to read (and how and when not to read), in an information age.     

The Underlying Architecture of the Creative Worlds of Children: Young Persons from the UK and China Unwittingly Generate More Concepts that Violate Ontological Category Structure Than Do Older Adults During an Exemplar‐Generation Task

Is our cognition the underlying architecture of the recurrent and pan‐cultural imaginative ideas of children and adolescents? Recent cross‐cultural studies show that children and adolescents recall proportionally more creative, counterintuitive concepts than older adults. One outstanding concern is that cultural transmission is also constrained by how concepts emerge into culture. Hence, a broad sample of age demographics in UK and China (10–58 years; N = 90) participated in an exemplar‐generation task where participants assembled statements exemplifying conceptual categories of positive and negative emotion, imagery, humor, and inferential potential. Multiple regression analysis considering counterintuitiveness and age revealed young persons generated significantly more imaginative, counterintuitive ideas than older adults, in both UK and China groups. This cross‐cultural support for an underlying cognitive architecture of human creativity builds on Ward's (1994) research on structured imagination.     

Measuring Creativity: A 40+ Year Retrospective

This article describes how, as theories of creativity evolved, so have measures of creativity. Measures thus reflect the theories that generated them.