Why do ideas get more creative across time? An executive interpretation of the serial order effect in divergent thinking tasks.

This study examined the unfolding in real time of original ideas during divergent thinking (DT) in five- to six-year-olds and related individual differences in DT to executive functions (EFs). The Alternative Uses Task was administered with verbal prompts that encouraged children to report on their thinking processes while generating uses for daily objects. In addition to coding the originality of each use, the domain-specific DT processes memory retrieval and mental operations were coded from children’s explanations. Six EF tasks were administered and combined into composites to measure working memory, shifting, inhibition, and selective attention. The results replicated findings of a previous study with the same children but at age four years: (1) there was a serial order effect of the originality of uses; and (2) the process mental operations predicted the originality of uses. Next, the results revealed that both domain-general EFs and domain-specific executive processes played a role in the real-time unfolding of original ideas during DT. Particularly, the DT process mental operations was positively related to the early generation of original ideas, while selective attention was negatively related to the later generation of original ideas. These findings deepen our understanding of how controlled executive processes operate during DT.

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An Experimental Approach to Investigate the Involvement of Cognitive Load in Divergent Thinking

Journal of Intelligence ◽

10.3390/jintelligence9010003 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 3

Author(s):

Ruben Kleinkorres ◽

Boris Forthmann ◽

Heinz Holling

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Load ◽

External Validity ◽

Divergent Thinking ◽

Experimental Approach ◽

Internal Validity ◽

Serial Order ◽

Order Effect ◽

Future Research ◽

Instruction Condition ◽

Creative Instruction

Up to now, support for the idea that a controlled component exists in creative thought has mainly been supported by correlational studies; to further shed light on this issue, we employed an experimental approach. We used four alternate uses tasks that differed in instruction type (“be fluent” vs. “be creative”) and concurrent secondary workload (load vs. no load). A total of 51 participants (39 female) went through all tasks and generated ideas for a total of 16 different objects; their responses were scored in terms of fluency (number of responses generated), creative quality, and flexibility. We did find, as expected, that the be-creative instruction resulted in fewer and more creative ideas, as well as more flexible idea sets, but neither of the expected interaction effects became significant. Specifically, fluency was not affected more strongly by secondary workload in the be-fluent instruction condition than in the be-creative instruction condition. Further, the performance drop evoked by the secondary workload was not stronger in the be-creative instruction condition compared to the be-fluent instruction condition when creative quality or flexibility were examined as dependent variable. Altogether, our results do not confirm that be-creative instructions involve more cognitive load than be-fluent instructions. Nevertheless, the analysis of the serial order effect and additional correlational examinations revealed some promising results. Methodological limitations which may have influenced the results are discussed in light of the inherent suspense between internal and external validity (i.e., most likely the applied self-paced dual-task approach increased external validity, but undermined internal validity) and potentially guide future research.

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Neural correlates of serial order effect in verbal divergent thinking

Neuropsychologia ◽

10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.03.001 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 99 ◽

pp. 92-100 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Meijuan Wang ◽

Ning Hao ◽

Yixuan Ku ◽

Roland H. Grabner ◽

Andreas Fink

Keyword(s):

Divergent Thinking ◽

Serial Order ◽

Order Effect ◽

Neural Correlates

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EEG alpha activity is moderated by the serial order effect during divergent thinking

Biological Psychology ◽

10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.04.003 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 145 ◽

pp. 84-95 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Brian Kraus ◽

Chelsea Cadle ◽

Stephanie Simon-Dack

Keyword(s):

Divergent Thinking ◽

Serial Order ◽

Order Effect ◽

Alpha Activity ◽

Eeg Alpha ◽

Eeg Alpha Activity

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Temporal Structure of Letter Groups and Span of Perception

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1080/17470216408416373 ◽

1964 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. 232-240 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

J. A. Michon

Keyword(s):

Temporal Structure ◽

Serial Order ◽

Simultaneous Presentation ◽

Order Effect ◽

Temporal Separation ◽

Fixed Amount ◽

Immediate Memory ◽

Visual Presence ◽

The Difference ◽

The One

The span of perception for letter groups depends on number of letters presented, length of presentation and structure of the groups. The experiment reported varied the temporal structure of the groups, leaving the total number of letters constant. Groups of 12 letters were presented as a whole or in two or more successive “units.” The total time of presentation was 1–5 sec. In the first experiment each unit was visible until the next appeared, in the second experiment units were visible only during 1/4 sec., although intervals between successive units were kept constant. The following conclusions emerged: (a) The visual presence of units did not affect the reproduction for durations over 0.25 sec., except in the 12-letter presentations. (b) 2×6 letters gave better results than either simultaneous presentation or other divisions; temporal separation was 0.75 sec. (c) Higher order approximations to Dutch have more influence on 3 × 4, 2 × 6 and 1 × 12 letters than on 4 × 3 and 6 × 2 letters. (d) A serial order effect exists: central units are reproduced less well than first and last units. It is suggested that handling a fixed amount of information within a fixed period is limited on the one hand by confusion between simultaneous elements and on the other hand by the interaction between successive units presented too rapidly to allow for proper operation of immediate memory. The difference between span of perception and span of memory is stressed.

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The Psychophysics of Retrospective and Prospective Timing

Perception ◽

10.1068/p170297 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 17 (3) ◽

pp. 297-310 ◽

Cited By ~ 35

Author(s):

Scott W Brown ◽

D Alan Stubbs

Keyword(s):

Context Effect ◽

Serial Order ◽

Order Effect ◽

The Other ◽

Similar Process ◽

Rank Ordering ◽

Time Estimates ◽

Straight Line ◽

Actual Duration

In two experiments, different groups of subjects heard four musical selections and then estimated the duration of each selection. Some groups made retrospective time estimates while others made prospective estimates. In both experiments, analyses of the psychophysical relation between perceived and actual duration showed that the slopes of straight-line fits were flatter and accounted for a smaller proportion of the variance under retrospective as compared with prospective conditions. In addition, in experiment 1, retrospective subjects were less accurate in rank ordering the selections from longest to shortest. There was also a serial-order effect, with selections estimated longer when they occurred early in the sequence. In experiment 2 the slopes decreased as the selections in a series became longer. Both retrospective and prospective estimates also exhibited a context effect, in that estimates of a given selection were influenced by the relative durations of the other three selections in the series. The results on inaccurate retrospective judgments raise questions about prior research on stimulus factors and retrospective timing. However, similarities under retrospective and prospective conditions suggest that timing under these conditions, although different in some respects, reflects a similar process.

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The serial order effect in the song acquisition of birds: relevance of exposure frequency to song models

Animal Behaviour ◽

10.1016/0003-3472(92)90074-j ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 44 ◽

pp. 590-592 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Henrike Hultsch ◽

Dietmar Todt

Keyword(s):

Serial Order ◽

Order Effect ◽

Exposure Frequency ◽

Song Acquisition

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Incidental Encoding of the Serial Order of Visual-Spatial Events in Working Memory

The Spanish Journal of Psychology ◽

10.1017/sjp.2013.73 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 16 ◽

Author(s):

Jeanny Joana Rodrigues Alves de Santana ◽

César Galera

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Serial Order ◽

Spatial Location ◽

Relevant Information ◽

Order Effect ◽

Relevant Dimension ◽

Visual Appearance ◽

Visual Spatial ◽

Visual Characteristic ◽

Incidental Encoding

AbstractWe investigated the incidental encoding in working memory of event serial order in tasks in which the relevant dimension was visual appearance, spatial location, or visual-spatial conjunction. The participants (n = 60) were asked whether two sequences were identical based on the relevant dimension, and to ignore changes in the irrelevant dimension, that is the order of events. Changes in serial order impaired the performance when sequences were identical; this effect was more pronounced in spatial sequences. It is suggested that the order was incidentally encoded with the relevant information to the task in an earlier stage in the information processing, which explains a different pattern of serial order effect according to the relevant dimension. Although encoded, the serial order may not have affected the visual storage in working memory because it might have been kept in a distinct subcomponent rather than the one that stores the visual characteristic. Moreover, the order may have affected spatial storage because the maintenance of this dimension might be related to a rehearsal mechanism based on serial order of sequence. This conclusion qualifies models that admit the architecture of working memory based on the specificity of encoding and functional interaction between subcomponents of storage.

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Transfer of Learning: What Does It Tell Us About Speech Production Units?

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2018_jslhr-s-17-0130 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 61 (7) ◽

pp. 1613-1625 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Tiphaine Caudrelier ◽

Jean-Luc Schwartz ◽

Pascal Perrier ◽

Silvain Gerber ◽

Amélie Rochet-Capellan

Keyword(s):

Motor Control ◽

Speech Production ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Serial Order ◽

Order Effect ◽

Initial Position ◽

Control Research ◽

Definition Of ◽

Speech Motor

Purpose Words, syllables, and phonemes have each been regarded as basic encoding units of speech production in various psycholinguistic models. The present article investigates the role of each unit in the interface with speech articulation, using a paradigm from motor control research. Method Seventy-six native speakers of French were trained to change their production of /be/ in response to an auditory feedback perturbation (auditory–motor learning). We then assessed the magnitude of learning transfer from /be/ to the syllables in 2 pseudowords (/bepe/ and /pebe/) and 1 real word (/bebe/) as well as the aftereffect on the same utterance (/be/) with a between-subjects design. This made it possible to contrast the amplitude of transfer at the levels of the utterance, the syllable, and the phoneme, depending on the position in the word. Linear mixed models allowed us to study the amplitude as well as the dynamics of the transfer and the aftereffect over trials. Results Transfer from the training utterance /be/ was observed for all vowels of the test utterances but was larger to the syllable /be/ than to the syllable /pe/ at word-initial position and larger to the 1st syllable than to the 2nd syllable in the utterance. Conclusions Our study suggests that words, syllables, and phonemes may all contribute to the definition of speech motor commands. In addition, the observation of a serial order effect raises new questions related to the connection between psycholinguistic models and speech motor control approaches.

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