Is More Time Better for Divergent Thinking? A Meta-Analysis of the Time-On-Task Effect on Divergent Thinking

Chewing is crushing food not only to aid swallowing and digestion, but also to help stress relief and regulate cognitive function, especially in attention. It is well known that chewing gum is used for sleepiness prevention during work, learning, and driving, suggesting a link between chewing and sustained attention. We hypothesized that chewing elevates attention and/or alertness, leading to improvements in cognitive performance. We carried out a systematic review of the PubMed database. We inspected the attributes of effects on attention in studies investigating the effects of chewing on attention or alertness conducted with pre-post design in healthy subjects, except elderly. We identified 151 references, 22 of which were included: 14 (64%) showed positive attributes of effects on attention, 1 (5%) showed negative attributes of effects on attention, 5 (23%) showed both positive and negative attributes of effects on attention, and 2 (9%) showed no significant attributes of effects on attention. Thus, positive attributes of effects of chewing on attention, especially on sustained attention, were shown in over half of the reports. These effects also appeared with improvement in mood and stress relief and were influenced by time-on-task effect. Further studies are needed, but chewing could be useful for modifying cognitive function.

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Monotonous driving induces shifts in spatial attention as a function of handedness

10.31234/osf.io/83stw ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Dilushi Chandrakumar ◽

Scott Coussens ◽

Hannah AD Keage ◽

Siobhan Banks ◽

Jill Dorrian ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Spatial Attention ◽

Current Evidence ◽

Time On Task ◽

Opposite Pattern ◽

Simulated Driving ◽

Attention Tasks ◽

Task Effect ◽

Driving Task ◽

The Right ◽

Simulated Driving Task

Current evidence suggests that the ability to detect and react to information under lowered alertness conditions might be more impaired on the left than the right side of space. This evidence derives mainly from right-handers being assessed in computer and paper-and-pencil spatial attention tasks. However, there are suggestions that left-handers might show impairments on the opposite (right) side compared to right-handers with lowered alertness, and it is unclear whether the impairments observed in the computer tasks have any real-world implications for activities such as driving. The current study investigated the alertness and spatial attention relationship under simulated monotonous driving in left- and right-handers. Twenty left-handed and 22 right-handed participants (15 males, mean age=23.6y, SD=5.0y) were assessed on a simulated driving task (lasting approximately 60 minutes) to induce a time-on-task effect. The driving task involved responding to stimuli appearing at six different horizontal locations on the screen, whilst driving in a 50km/h zone. Decreases in alertness and driving performance were evident with time-on-task in both handedness groups. We found handedness impacts reacting to lateral stimuli differently with time-on-task: right-handers reacted slower to the leftmost stimuli, while left-handers showed the opposite pattern (although not statistically significant) in the second compared to first half of the drive. Our findings support suggestions that handedness modulates the spatial attention and alertness interactions. The interactions were observed in a simulated driving task which calls for further research to understand the safety implications of these interactions for activities such as driving.

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Evaluative Conditioning without awareness: Replicable effects do not equate replicable inferences

10.31234/osf.io/4gzsp ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ian Hussey ◽

Sean Hughes

Keyword(s):

Null Hypothesis ◽

Bayes Factor ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Evaluative Conditioning ◽

Exclusion Criterion ◽

Primary Analysis ◽

Present Evidence ◽

Task Effect ◽

Statistical Effect ◽

Zero Effect

Moran et al.’s (2020) primary analysis successfully replicated the surveillance task effect obtained by Olson and Fazio (2001). This effect is often treated as evidence for attitude formation in the absence of awareness. However, such an inference requires that ‘aware’ participants are successfully excluded from consideration. We present evidence that the awareness exclusion criterion used by Olson and Fazio (2001) – the only one to produce a significant effect in the replication – is a poor measure of awareness: it is overly lax, noisy, and demonstrates heterogeneity between sites. A new meta-analysis of the RRR data using a stricter compound awareness exclusion criterion that prioritized sensitivity (N = 665) demonstrated a non-significant and near-zero effect size (Hedges’ g = 0.00, p = .983). A Bayes Factor analysis demonstrated strong evidence for the null hypothesis (BF10 = 0.04). When subjected to a more severe test, Moran et al.’s (2020) data does not support the ‘unaware Evaluative Conditioning’ hypothesis. Results serve to highlight the importance of distinguishing between a replicable statistical effect and a replicable inference regarding a verbal hypothesis. All data and code available at osf.io/ugrjh.

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Evaluating a Spatial Task: Behavioral, Subjective, and Physiological Correlates

Proceedings of the Human Factors Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/154193128703100719 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 31 (7) ◽

pp. 774-778

Author(s):

Kathy McCloskey

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Heart Rate Variability ◽

Spatial Task ◽

Time On Task ◽

Validation Data ◽

Task Load ◽

Task Effect ◽

Load Effects ◽

Bodily Arousal ◽

Task Level

A spatial task, taken from the Criterion Task Set (CTS) battery, was used to examine task load effects on a variety of physiological indices. This task had been shown with earlier validation data (reaction time and subjective ratings) to possess three different levels of task load (Shingledecker, 1984). Task event-related evoked potentials (EPs), heart rate and heart rate variability, and eyeblink measures were obtained while ten subjects performed the three levels of the spatial task. The amplitudes of the P2, N2, and P3 of the EPs differentiated between the low task level, and the medium and high. Medium and high did not differentiate. The latencies of the N1, N2, and P3 were shorter for the low task level than for the medium and high. Again, medium and high did not differentiate. The amplitude and latency of the EP components suggest that this task possesses only two levels of information processing complexity. Heart rate and heart rate variability did not differentiate between task levels, only between a no-task baseline and all other levels of the task. Both heart rate indices did show a time-on-task effect, suggesting that these measures are good indicators of overall bodily arousal. None of the eyeblink measures showed sensitivity to any levels of the task.

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Are Emotionally Intelligent People More Creative? A Meta-Analysis of the Emotional Intelligence–Creativity Link

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11216123 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (21) ◽

pp. 6123 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Xiaobo Xu ◽

Wenling Liu ◽

Weiguo Pang

Keyword(s):

Emotional Intelligence ◽

Divergent Thinking ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Well Being ◽

Total Sample ◽

Future Directions ◽

Creative Behavior ◽

Sample Characteristics ◽

Subjective Reports ◽

Emotionally Intelligent

Although emotional intelligence (EI) is positively associated with beneficial outcomes such as higher job performance and better psychological well-being, its relationship with creativity is uncertain. To assess an overall correlation between EI and creativity, in the present study a meta-analysis of 96 correlations obtained from 75 studies with a total sample size of 18,130 was conducted. The results uncovered a statistically significant moderate correlation (r = 0.32, 95% CI, 0.26–0.38, p < 0.01) between these two constructs. Moderation analyses revealed that the link was modulated by the type of creativity/EI measure and sample characteristics, such as gender, employment status, and culture. Specifically, the link was stronger when EI and creativity were measured using subjective reports (EI: trait EI; creativity: creative behavior and creative personality) compared to objective tests (EI: ability EI; creativity: divergent thinking test, remote associate test, and creative product). In addition, the link was stronger in males compared to females, in employees compared to students, and in East Asian samples compared to Western European and American samples. Theoretical implications and future directions are discussed in detail.

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