scholarly journals Do We Need to Forget Fixations to Incubate? A Paradox of the Forgetting Fixation Theory

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 682-695
Author(s):  
Е.А. Валуева ◽  
Н.М. Лаптева
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Incubation Period ◽  
Problem Solver ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Incubation Effect ◽  
Response Latencies ◽  
Actual Mechanism ◽  
Fixed Part ◽  
To Come ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

The incubation period is regarded as an important stage in creative problem solving. The incubation effect manifests itself in the enhanced problem-solving performance after taking a break. Forgetting fixation hypothesis states that incubation provides a problem solver with an opportunity to eliminate inappropriate ideas (mental sets) and therefore to come up with a correct solution. We explored in two studies whether forgetting is an actual mechanism of the incubation period (i.e. whether the traces of inappropriate fixations in memory become weaker as a consequence of incubation). In Study 1 we employed the Alternative Uses Task (AUT) and fixed part of the participants on several most common ways of using an object. We checked then whether incubation helped to forget our fixations. We found the incubation effect (i.e. a greater fluency at the second attempt) only when participants were previously fixated. However, we also found that the incubation didn’t influence the number of fixations. Thus, we failed to find the evidence for forgetting fixation during the incubation period. In Study 2 we used anagrams with two possible solutions and fixed the participant on one of them. Then we used the Lexical Decision Task (LDT) to examine whether these fixations would become weaker as a result of the incubation period. No differences were found between the incubation and no-incubation groups in their response latencies for fixation words. Our results indicate that while the assumption that the function of an incubation period is in overcoming inappropriate mental sets seems to be true, the forgetting fixation theory provides an inaccurate account of underlying mechanisms.

Dispositional negativity, cognition, and anxiety disorders: An integrative translational neuroscience framework

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juyoen Hur ◽  
Melissa D. Stockbridge ◽  
Andrew S. Fox ◽  
Alexander J. Shackman
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factor ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Intervention Strategies ◽  
Attentional Biases ◽  
Translational Neuroscience ◽  
Adult Personality ◽  
Fundamental Dimension ◽  
To Come ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

When extreme, anxiety can become debilitating. Anxiety disorders, which often first emerge early in development, are common and challenging to treat, yet the underlying mechanisms have only recently begun to come into focus. Here, we review new insights into the nature and biological bases of dispositional negativity, a fundamental dimension of childhood temperament and adult personality and a prominent risk factor for the development of pediatric and adult anxiety disorders. Converging lines of epidemiological, neurobiological, and mechanistic evidence suggest that dispositional negativity increases the likelihood of psychopathology via specific neurocognitive mechanisms, including attentional biases to threat and deficits in executive control. Collectively, these observations provide an integrative translational framework for understanding the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders in adults and youth and set the stage for developing improved intervention strategies.

Priming Effects of Violence on Infrahumanization

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 699-714 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naira Delgado ◽  
Armando Rodríguez-Pérez ◽  
Jeroen Vaes ◽  
Jacques-Philippe Leyens ◽  
Verónica Betancor
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
The Other ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Human Suffering ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Contextual Dependency ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Effects Of Violence

Two experiments examine whether exposure to generic violence can display infrahumanization towards out-groups. In Study 1, participants had to solve a lexical decision task after viewing animal or human violent scenes. In Study 2, participants were exposed to either human violent or human suffering pictures before doing a lexical decision task. In both studies, the infrahumanization bias appeared after viewing the human violent pictures but not in the other experimental conditions. These two experiments support the idea of contextual dependency of infrahumanization, and suggest that violence can prime an infrahuman perception of the out-group. Theoretical implications for infrahumanization and potential underlying mechanisms are discussed.

scholarly journals Lack of Noradrenergic Modulation of Indirect Semantic Priming

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 137-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacquelyne S. Cios ◽  
Regan F. Miller ◽  
Ashleigh Hillier ◽  
Madalina E. Tivarus ◽  
David Q. Beversdorf
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Semantic Priming ◽  
Semantic Network ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Semantic Relatedness ◽  
Semantic Networks ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Dopaminergic Drugs ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Noradrenergic Modulation

Norepinephrine and dopamine are both believed to affect signal-to-noise in the cerebral cortex. Dopaminergic agents appear to modulate semantic networks during indirect semantic priming, but do not appear to affect problem solving dependent on access to semantic networks. Noradrenergic agents, though, do affect semantic network dependent problem solving. We wished to examine whether noradrenergic agents affect indirect semantic priming. Subjects attended three sessions: one each after propranolol (40 mg) (noradrenergic antagonist), ephedrine (25 mg) (noradrenergic agonist), and placebo. During each session, closely related, distantly related, and unrelated pairs were presented. Reaction times for a lexical decision task on the target words (second word in the pair) were recorded. No decrease in indirect semantic priming occurred with ephedrine. Furthermore, across all three drugs, a main effect of semantic relatedness was found, but no main effect of drug, and no drug/semantic relatedness interaction effect. These findings suggest that noradrenergic agents, with these drugs and at these doses, do not affect indirect semantic priming with the potency of dopaminergic drugs at the doses previously studied. In the context of this previous work, this suggests that more automatic processes such as priming and more controlled searches of the lexical and semantic networks such as problem solving may be mediated, at least in part, by distinct mechanisms with differing effects of pharmacological modulation.

scholarly journals ’n Verkennende studie met die oog op die identifisering en kategorisering van leerteorieë met verwysing na die prediking

1994 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
C. M. Van den Berg ◽  
T. F.J. Dreyer
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Other ◽  
Creative Problem Solving ◽  
The Social ◽  
Creative Problem ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Church

An introductory study to identify and classify theories of learning with regard to the task of preaching Learning is a lifelong process in which man must be what he can be, namely a being interacting with his world in a creative problem-solving manner for the well-being of himself and others. In a similar sense the church has always seen her task in preaching, supported by all the other domains of churchlife, as that of teaching people to come to terms with the gospel of Jesus Christ in their daily existence. This article proposes to identify, categorize and integrate the acknowledged theories underlying the learning process, as they exist in the social sciences, into an allencompassing model for learning; a model from which conclusions are drawn in the hope that further studies can spell out the implications of these conclusions as they are applicable to the task of preaching within the church.

Does Mind Wandering During the Thought Incubation Period Improve Creativity and Worsen Mood?

2019 ◽  
Vol 123 (5) ◽  
pp. 1785-1800
Author(s):  
Akina Yamaoka ◽  
Shintaro Yukawa
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
Incubation Period ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Mind Wandering ◽  
Creative Problem Solving ◽  
Incubation Stage ◽  
Creative Problem

Enhancing creative problem-solving is increasingly important in a modern globalized society. Previous research has shown that creative problem-solving can be improved if the mind is allowed to wander during time set aside from solving a problem, known as the incubation period. However, some research also suggests that mind wandering leads to negative affect. Our study aims to clarify the effect of mind wandering during the incubation stage on both creative problem-solving and mood while controlling for the effect of working memory capacity. Fifty-two students (both undergraduate and graduates) completed a working memory task and repeated a creative problem-solving task at intervals before and after an incubation period. At the end of the incubation period, we measured participants’ frequency of mind wandering and their moods. Results showed that the group with the higher frequency of mind wandering showed the most improvement in one indicator of creativity, flexibility, although this finding was not significant after adjusting for the other four facets. Moreover, our findings indicate that as creativity improved, more negative affect was generated. Our results suggest that mind wandering during the incubation stage could be used to generate more diverse ideas but also suggest that there is a risk attached. Further research should explore how specific features of mind wandering might improve creativity without generating negative affect.

Task Characteristics as Source of Difficulty and Moderators of the Effect of Time-on-Task in Digital Problem-Solving

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (8) ◽  
pp. 1494-1514
Author(s):  
Zsófia Vörös ◽  
Dániel Kehl ◽  
Jean-François Rouet
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Task Complexity ◽  
International Study ◽  
Computer Applications ◽  
Task Characteristics ◽  
Problem Solver ◽  
Time On Task ◽  
Information Problem Solving ◽  
Technology Users

To be able to solve complex information problems in a digital environment is a key 21st century skill. Technology users usually expect to achieve their goals in a fast and accurate way. However, the actual relationship between time-on-task and task outcome is currently not well understood. We analyzed data from a large-scale international study in which representative samples of adults had to solve more or less complex problems using standard computer applications. Our results indicate that different task characteristics influence the relationship between problem-solving performance and time-on-task in specific ways. Spending more time on a task is more likely to compensate an average problem solver when task complexity can be attributed to intrinsic task and technology drivers than when complexity stems from the cognitive/metacognitive activities belonging to information problem-solving processes per se, especially acquiring and evaluating information. Thus, the interpretation of time-on-task should take the source of difficulty into consideration. Implications for personal and professional development are discussed.

Processing of Words Related to the Demands of a Previously Solved Problem

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Kowalczyk
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Affective Responses ◽  
Recall Task ◽  
Cued Recall ◽  
Classification Task ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Response Latencies ◽  
Impaired Memory ◽  
Experimental Group

Abstract Earlier research by the author brought about findings suggesting that people in a special way process words related to demands of a problem they previously solved, even when they do not consciously notice this relationship. The findings concerned interference in the task in which the words appeared, a shift in affective responses to them that depended on sex of the participants, and impaired memory of the words. The aim of this study was to replicate these effects and to find out whether they are related to working memory (WM) span of the participants, taken as a measure of the individual’s ability to control attention. Participants in the experimental group solved a divergent problem, then performed an ostensibly unrelated speeded affective classification task concerning each of a series of nouns, and then performed an unexpected cued recall task for the nouns. Afterwards, a task measuring WM span was administered. In the control group there was no problem-solving phase. Response latencies for words immediately following problem-related words in the classification task were longer in the experimental than in the control group, but there was no relationship between this effect and WM span. Solving the problem, in interaction with sex of the participants and, independently, with their WM span, influenced affective responses to problem-related words. Recall of these words, however, was not impaired in the experimental group.

Drawing attention to primes increases inhibitory word priming effects.

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Zimmerman ◽  
Pablo Gomez
Keyword(s):  
Masked Priming ◽  
Unrelated Word ◽  
Facilitatory Effect ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Response Latencies ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Lexical Information ◽  
Word Priming ◽  
Time Required ◽  
Duration Condition

Inhibitory masked priming effects in the lexical decision task (LDT) have been proven difficult to replicate. If these difficulties are due to individual differences in attention, introducing minor fluctuations in the temporal parameters of prime-target presentation should increase priming effects by drawing attention to the prime. The current study presents two experiments in which we manipulated the duration of prime presentation to this effect. In Experiment 1, we presented subjects (n = 224) with an LDT using form-related and -unrelated word primes. Subjects were assigned to a condition in which all primes were presented for 48ms, or a condition in which one-fourth of the primes were presented for 64ms. Inhibitory priming effects emerged only for the mixed duration condition. Experiment 2 repeated the procedures of the first experiment but with nonword primes. Because nonword primes have no lexical information, target item response latencies should not suffer from the additional processing time required to suppress those representations. Thus, as predicted, Experiment 2 yielded a facilitatory effect of priming. Together, these experiments show that small manipulations of the prime SOA can increase attention to the temporal location of the prime, and that when attention is drawn to the existence of primes in this manner, inhibitory word priming can be observed.

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