Divergent semantic integration (DSI): Extracting creativity from narratives with distributional semantic modeling.

We developed a novel conceptualization of one component of creativity in narratives by integrating creativity theory and distributional semantics theory. We termed the new construct divergent semantic integration (DSI), defined as the extent to which a narrative connects divergent ideas. Across nine studies, 27 different narrative prompts, and over 3500 short narratives, we compared six models of DSI that varied in their computational architecture. The best-performing model employed Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), which generates context-dependent numerical representations of words (i.e., embeddings). BERT DSI scores demonstrated impressive predictive power, explaining up to 72% of the variance in human creativity ratings, even approaching human inter-rater reliability for some tasks. BERT DSI scores showed equivalently high predictive power for expert and nonexpert human ratings of creativity in narratives. Critically, DSI scores generalized across ethnicity and English language proficiency, including individuals identifying as Hispanic and L2 English speakers. The integration of creativity and distributional semantics theory has substantial potential to generate novel hypotheses about creativity and novel operationalizations of its underlying processes and components. To facilitate new discoveries across diverse disciplines, we provide a tutorial with code (osf.io/ath2s) on how to compute DSI and a web app ( osf.io/ath2s ) to freely retrieve DSI scores.

Functional Realignment of Frontoparietal Subnetworks during Divergent Creative Thinking.

Creative cognition has been consistently associated with functional connectivity between frontoparietal control and default networks. However, recent research identified distinct connectivity dynamics for subnetworks within the larger frontoparietal system-one subnetwork (FPCNa) shows positive coupling with the default network and another subnetwork (FPCNb) shows negative default coupling-raising questions about how these networks interact during creative cognition. Here we examine frontoparietal subnetwork functional connectivity in a large sample of participants (n = 171) who completed a divergent creative thinking task and a resting-state scan during fMRI. We replicated recent findings on functional connectivity of frontoparietal subnetworks at rest: FPCNa positively correlated with the default network and FPCNb negatively correlated with the default network. Critically, we found that divergent thinking evoked functional connectivity between both frontoparietal subnetworks and the default network, but in different ways. Using community detection, we found that FPCNa regions showed greater coassignment to a default network community. However, FPCNb showed overall stronger functional connectivity with the default network-reflecting a reversal of negative connectivity at rest-and the strength of FPCNb-default network connectivity correlated with individual creative ability. These findings provide novel evidence of a behavioral benefit to the cooperation of typically anticorrelated brain networks.

Connectome-Based Predictive Modeling of Creativity Anxiety.

While a recent upsurge in the application of neuroimaging methods to creative cognition has yielded encouraging progress toward understanding the neural underpinnings of creativity, the neural basis of barriers to creativity are as yet unexplored. Here, we report the first investigation into the neural correlates of one such recently identified barrier to creativity: anxiety specific to creative thinking, or creativity anxiety (Daker et al., 2019). We employed a machine-learning technique for exploring relations between functional connectivity and behavior (connectome-based predictive modeling; CPM) to investigate the functional connections underlying creativity anxiety. Using whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity data, we identified a network of connections or "edges" that predicted individual differences in creativity anxiety, largely comprising connections within and between regions of the executive and default networks and the limbic system. We then found that the edges related to creativity anxiety identified in one sample generalize to predict creativity anxiety in an independent sample. We additionally found evidence that the network of edges related to creativity anxiety were largely distinct from those found in previous work to be related to divergent creative ability (Beaty et al., 2018). In addition to being the first work on the neural correlates of creativity anxiety, this research also included the development of a new Chinese-language version of the Creativity Anxiety Scale, and demonstrated that key behavioral findings from the initial work on creativity anxiety are replicable across cultures and languages.

Developing a neurally informed ontology of creativity measurement.

A central challenge for creativity research-as for all areas of experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience-is to establish a mapping between constructs and measures (i.e., identifying a set of tasks that best captures a set of creative abilities). A related challenge is to achieve greater consistency in the measures used by different researchers; inconsistent measurement hinders progress toward shared understanding of cognitive and neural components of creativity. New resources for aggregating neuroimaging data, and the emergence of methods for identifying structure in multivariate data, present the potential for new approaches to address these challenges. Identifying meta-analytic structure (i.e., similarity) in neural activity associated with creativity tasks might help identify subsets of these tasks that best reflect the similarity structure of creativity-relevant constructs. Here, we demonstrated initial proof-of-concept for such an approach. To build a model of similarity between creativity-relevant constructs, we first surveyed creativity researchers. Next, we used NeuroSynth meta-analytic software to generate maps of neural activity robustly associated with tasks intended to measure the same set of creativity-relevant constructs. A representational similarity analysis-based approach identified particular constructs-and particular tasks intended to measure those constructs-that positively or negatively impacted the model fit. This approach points the way to identifying optimal sets of tasks to capture elements of creativity (i.e., dimensions of similarity space among creativity constructs), and has long-term potential to meaningfully advance the ontological development of creativity research with the rapid growth of creativity neuroscience. Because it relies on neuroimaging meta-analysis, this approach has more immediate potential to inform longer-established fields for which more extensive sets of neuroimaging data are already available.

Thinking Cap Plus Thinking Zap: tDCS of Frontopolar Cortex Improves Creative Analogical Reasoning and Facilitates Conscious Augmentation of State Creativity in Verb Generation.

Recent neuroimaging evidence indicates neural mechanisms that support transient improvements in creative performance (augmented state creativity) in response to cognitive interventions (creativity cueing). Separately, neural interventions via tDCS show encouraging potential for modulating neuronal function during creative performance. If cognitive and neural interventions are separately effective, can they be combined? Does state creativity augmentation represent "real" creativity, or do interventions simply yield divergence by diminishing meaningfulness/appropriateness? Can augmenting state creativity bolster creative reasoning that supports innovation, particularly analogical reasoning? To address these questions, we combined tDCS with creativity cueing. Testing a regionally specific hypothesis from neuroimaging, high-definition tDCS-targeted frontopolar cortex activity recently shown to predict state creativity augmentation. In a novel analogy finding task, participants under tDCS formulated substantially more creative analogical connections in a large matrix search space (creativity indexed via latent semantic analysis). Critically, increased analogical creativity was not due to diminished accuracy in discerning valid analogies, indicating "real" creativity rather than inappropriate divergence. A simpler relational creativity paradigm (modified verb generation) revealed a tDCS-by-cue interaction; tDCS further enhanced creativity cue-related increases in semantic distance. Findings point to the potential of noninvasive neuromodulation to enhance creative relational cognition, including augmentation of the deliberate effort to formulate connections between distant concepts.

Sex differences in verbal working memory performance emerge at very high loads of common neuroimaging tasks.

Working memory (WM) supports a broad range of intelligent cognition and has been the subject of rich cognitive and neural characterization. However, the highest ranges of WM have not been fully characterized, especially for verbal information. Tasks developed to test multiple levels of WM demand (load) currently predominate brain-based WM research. These tasks are typically used at loads that allow most healthy participants to perform well, which facilitates neuroimaging data collection. Critically, however, high performance at lower loads may obscure differences that emerge at higher loads. A key question not yet addressed at high loads concerns the effect of sex. Thoroughgoing investigation of high-load verbal WM is thus timely to test for potential hidden effects, and to provide behavioral context for effects of sex observed in WM-related brain structure and function. We tested 111 young adults, matched on genotype for the WM-associated COMT-Val108/158Met polymorphism, on three classic WM tasks using verbal information. Each task was tested at four WM loads, including higher loads than those used in previous studies of sex differences. All tasks loaded on a single factor, enabling comparison of verbal WM ability at a construct level. Results indicated sex effects at high loads across tasks and within each task, such that males had higher accuracy, even among groups that were matched for performance at lower loads.

Frontopolar activity and connectivity support dynamic conscious augmentation of creative state.

No ability is more valued in the modern innovation-fueled economy than thinking creatively on demand, and the "thinking cap" capacity to augment state creativity (i.e., to try and succeed at thinking more creatively) is of broad importance for education and a rich mental life. Although brain-based creativity research has focused on static individual differences in trait creativity, less is known about changes in creative state within an individual. How does the brain augment state creativity when creative thinking is required? Can augmented creative state be consciously engaged and disengaged dynamically across time? Using a novel "thin slice" creativity paradigm in 55 fMRI participants performing verb-generation, we successfully cued large, conscious, short-duration increases in state creativity, indexed quantitatively by a measure of semantic distance derived via latent semantic analysis. A region of left frontopolar cortex, previously associated with creative integration of semantic information, exhibited increased activity and functional connectivity to anterior cingulate gyrus and right frontopolar cortex during cued augmentation of state creativity. Individual differences in the extent of increased activity in this region predicted individual differences in the extent to which participants were able to successfully augment state creative performance after accounting for trait creativity and intelligence.

A gene-brain-cognition pathway: prefrontal activity mediates the effect of COMT on cognitive control and IQ.

A core thesis of cognitive neurogenetic research is that genetic effects on cognitive ability are mediated by specific neural functions, however, demonstrating neural mediation has proved elusive. Pairwise relationships between genetic variation and brain function have yielded heterogeneous findings to date. This heterogeneity indicates that a multiple mediator modeling approach may be useful to account for complex relationships involving function at multiple brain regions. This is relevant not only for characterizing healthy cognition but for modeling the complex neural pathways by which disease-related genetic effects are transmitted to disordered cognitive phenotypes in psychiatric illness. Here, in 160 genotyped functional magnetic resonance imaging participants, we used a multiple mediator model to test a gene-brain-cognition pathway by which activity in 4 prefrontal brain regions mediates the effects of catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene on cognitive control and IQ. Results provide evidence for gene-brain-cognition mediation and help delineate a pathway by which gene expression contributes to intelligence.

Thin slices of creativity: using single-word utterances to assess creative cognition.

We investigated the hypothesis that individual differences in creative cognition can be manifest even in brief responses, such as single-word utterances. Participants (n = 193) were instructed to say a verb upon seeing a noun displayed on a computer screen and were cued to respond creatively to half of the nouns. For every noun-verb pair (72 pairs per subject), we assessed the semantic distance between the noun and the verb, using latent semantic analysis (LSA). Semantic distance was higher in the cued ("creative") condition than the uncued condition, within subjects. Critically, between subjects, semantic distance in the cued condition had a strong relationship to a creativity factor derived from a battery of verbal, nonverbal, and achievement-based creativity measures (ß= .50), and this relation remained when controlling for intelligence and personality. The data show that creative cognition can be assessed reliably and validly from such thin slices of behavior.

Semantic associative abilities and executive control functions predict novelty and appropriateness of idea generation.

Novelty and appropriateness are two fundamental components of creativity. However, the way in which novelty and appropriateness are separated at behavioral and neural levels remains poorly understood. In the present study, we aim to distinguish behavioral and neural bases of novelty and appropriateness of creative idea generation. In alignment with two established theories of creative thinking, which respectively, emphasize semantic association and executive control, behavioral results indicate that novelty relies more on associative abilities, while appropriateness relies more on executive functions. Next, employing a connectome predictive modeling (CPM) approach in resting-state fMRI data, we define two functional network-based models-dominated by interactions within the default network and by interactions within the limbic network-that respectively, predict novelty and appropriateness (i.e., cross-brain prediction). Furthermore, the generalizability and specificity of the two functional connectivity patterns are verified in additional resting-state fMRI and task fMRI. Finally, the two functional connectivity patterns, respectively mediate the relationship between semantic association/executive control and novelty/appropriateness. These findings provide global and predictive distinctions between novelty and appropriateness in creative idea generation.

Examining the Interplay between the Cognitive and Emotional Aspects of Gender Differences in Spatial Processing.

Women reliably perform worse than men on measures of spatial ability, particularly those involving mental rotation. At the same time, females also report higher levels of spatial anxiety than males. What remains unclear, however, is whether and in what ways gender differences in these cognitive and affective aspects of spatial processing may be interrelated. Here, we tested for robust gender differences across six different datasets in spatial ability and spatial anxiety (N = 1257, 830 females). Further, we tested for bidirectional mediation effects. We identified indirect relations between gender and spatial skills through spatial anxiety, as well as between gender and spatial anxiety through spatial skills. In the gender → spatial anxiety → spatial ability direction, spatial anxiety explained an average of 22.4% of gender differences in spatial ability. In the gender → spatial ability → spatial anxiety direction, spatial ability explained an average of 25.9% of gender differences in spatial anxiety. Broadly, these results support a strong relation between cognitive and affective factors when explaining gender differences in the spatial domain. However, the nature of this relation may be more complex than has been assumed in previous literature. On a practical level, the results of this study caution the development of interventions to address gender differences in spatial processing which focus primarily on either spatial anxiety or spatial ability until such further research can be conducted. Our results also speak to the need for future longitudinal work to determine the precise mechanisms linking cognitive and affective factors in spatial processing.

The Mental Models Training App: Enhancing verbal reasoning through a cognitive training mobile application.

Introduction: Reasoning is a complex form of human cognition whose nature has long been debated. While a number of neurocognitive mechanisms for deductive reasoning have been offered, one of the most prominent accounts is Mental Model Theory (MMT). According to MMT, humans are able to manipulate and represent information for reasoning and problem solving by leveraging the brain's evolved visuospatial resources. Thus, when solving deductive reasoning problems, reasoners build "mental models" of the essential pieces of information conveyed in the premises, with their relations to each other represented spatially-even when the information contained within a reasoning problem is not intrinsically spatial. Crucially, taking a spatially-based approach, such as building mental models, supports higher accuracy on deductive reasoning problems. However, no study has empirically tested whether explicitly training this mental modeling ability leads to improved deductive reasoning performance. Method: Therefore, we designed the Mental Models Training App, a cognitive training mobile application which requires participants to complete increasingly difficult reasoning problems while using an external mental modeling tool. In this preregistered study (https://osf.io/4b7kn), we conducted a between-subjects experiment (N = 301) which compared the Mental Models Training App to 3 distinct control conditions in order to examine which specific components (if any) of the training were causally responsible for improved reasoning performance. Results: Results demonstrate that, when compared to a passive control condition, the Mental Models Training App led to improvements in adults' verbal deductive reasoning performance both during and after the training intervention. However, contrary to our preregistered hypotheses, the training-induced improvements were not significantly larger than the effects of the active control conditions-one which included adaptive practice of the reasoning problems, and one which included adaptive practice as well as a spatial alphabetization control task. Discussion: Therefore, while the present results demonstrate the ability of the Mental Models Training App to enhance verbal deductive reasoning, they do not support the hypothesis that directly training participants mental modeling ability yields improved performance beyond the effects of adaptive practice of reasoning. Future research should examine the long-term effects of repeated usage of the Mental Models Training App, as well as transfer effects to other forms of reasoning. Finally, we present the Mental Models Training App as a free mobile application available on the Apple App store (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mental-models-training/id1664939931), in the hope that this translational research may be utilized by the general public to improve their reasoning ability.

Evidence for avoidance tendencies linked to anxiety about specific types of thinking.

Anxieties that are specific to a particular kind of thinking have been demonstrated for a variety of cognitive domains. One hypothesized consequence of these anxieties is reduced interest in pursuing activities and, consequentially, careers that involve the type of thinking in question in an effort to avoid engaging in that type of thinking. There is little research addressing this avoidance hypothesis, possibly because it is difficult to categorize pursuits as objectively "creative" or "spatial". Here, we measured the perceptions that participants, themselves, hold about how much pursuits (careers and activities) involve different types of thinking. We developed a novel framework for calculating "affinity coefficients", within-person associations between perceived cognitive involvement and interest across several pursuits. Having a negative creative affinity coefficient, for instance, means being less interested in pursuits the more they are perceived as involving creative thinking. Results across three separate cognitive domains (creativity, mathematics, and spatial reasoning) reliably showed that higher anxiety in a domain uniquely predicted a lower affinity coefficient in that domain, providing consistent evidence of avoidance tendencies linked to cognition-specific anxieties. These findings suggest that feeling anxious about particular types of thinking may play a significant role in shaping our interests, both big and small.

Does anxiety explain why math-anxious people underperform in math?

Math-anxious people consistently underperform in math. The most widely accepted explanation for why this underperformance occurs is that math-anxious people experience heightened anxiety when faced with math, and this in-the-moment anxiety interferes with performance. Surprisingly, this explanation has not been tested directly. Here, using both self-report and physiological indices of anxiety, we directly test how much in-the-moment anxiety explains math-anxious underperformance. Results indicate that in-the-moment anxiety indeed explains why math-anxious people underperform-but only partially, suggesting a need to seriously consider alternative mechanisms. Results also showed that while some highly math-anxious individuals-those with high levels of heart rate variability-experienced less in-the-moment anxiety, they nevertheless performed no better at math. For these individuals, math-anxious underperformance must occur for reasons unrelated to in-the-moment anxiety. More broadly, our findings point to substantial individual heterogeneity in the mechanisms underlying math-anxious underperformance. Accounting for this mechanistic heterogeneity may prove vital for optimally boosting math performance in math-anxious individuals.

Investigating links between creativity anxiety, creative performance, and state-level anxiety and effort during creative thinking.

Identifying ways to enable people to reach their creative potential is a core goal of creativity research with implications for education and professional attainment. Recently, we identified a potential barrier to creative achievement: creativity anxiety (i.e., anxiety specific to creative thinking). Initial work found that creativity anxiety is associated with fewer real-world creative achievements. However, the more proximal impacts of creativity anxiety remain unexplored. In particular, understanding how to overcome creativity anxiety requires understanding how creativity anxiety may or may not impact creative cognitive performance, and how it may relate to state-level anxiety and effort while completing creative tasks. The present study sought to address this gap by measuring creativity anxiety alongside several measures of creative performance, while concurrently surveying state-level anxiety and effort. Results indicated that creativity anxiety was, indeed, predictive of poor creative performance, but only on some of the tasks included. We also found that creativity anxiety predicted both state anxiety and effort during creative performance. Interestingly, state anxiety and effort did not explain the associations between creativity anxiety and creative performance. Together, this work suggests that creativity anxiety can often be overcome in the performance of creative tasks, but likewise points to increased state anxiety and effort as factors that may make creative performance and achievement fragile in more demanding real-world contexts.

Dynamic development of intuitions and explicit knowledge during implicit learning.

Implicit learning refers to learning without conscious awareness of the content acquired. Theoretical frameworks of human cognition suggest that intuitions develop based on incomplete perceptions of regularity during implicit learning and, in turn, lead to the development of more explicit, consciously-accessible knowledge. Surprisingly, however, this putative information processing pathway (i.e., implicit learning ➔ intuition ➔ explicit knowledge) has yet to be empirically demonstrated. The present study investigated the relationship between implicit learning, intuitions, and explicit knowledge using a modified Serial Reaction Time Task. Results indicate that intuitions of implicitly-learned patterns emerge prior to the development of explicit knowledge. Moreover, intuition timing and accuracy were significantly associated with accuracy of explicit reports. We did not, however, find that stronger implicit learners developed more accurate intuitions. Our findings suggest a crucial role of intuition in the formation of explicit knowledge from implicit learning.

Creative problem solving in knowledge-rich contexts.

Creative problem solving (CPS) in real-world contexts often relies on reorganization of existing knowledge to serve new, problem-relevant functions. However, classic creativity paradigms that minimize knowledge content are generally used to investigate creativity, including CPS. We argue that CPS research should expand consideration of knowledge-rich problem contexts, both in novices and experts within specific domains. In particular, paradigms focusing on creative analogical transfer of knowledge may reflect CPS skills that are applicable to real-world problem solving. Such paradigms have begun to provide process-level insights into cognitive and neural characteristics of knowledge-rich CPS and point to multiple avenues for fruitfully expanding inquiry into the role of crystalized knowledge in creativity.

Fine motor skills during early childhood predict visuospatial deductive reasoning in adolescence.

Extensive evidence and theory suggest that the development of motor skills during infancy and early childhood initiates a "developmental cascade" for cognitive abilities, such as reading and math. Motor skills are closely connected with the development of spatial cognition, an ability that supports deductive reasoning. Despite the linkage between motor skills and spatial cognition, and spatial cognition with deductive reasoning, no research has explored the developmental connection between early motor skills and reasoning ability, a plausible pathway through which the developmental cascade operates. Drawing data from the 1970 British Cohort Study (N = 1,233; 95% British, 5% other race/ethnicity; 54% male, 46% female; 7% low income, 80% middle income, 12% high income), this study investigated whether there was a relationship between gross and fine motor skills in infancy (22 months of age) and early childhood (42 months of age) and visuospatial deductive reasoning in adolescence (at 10 and 16 years of age). Results indicated that fine but not gross motor skills during early childhood positively predicted reasoning in adolescence. Critically, the fine motor-reasoning association mediated the previously observed link between early fine motor skills and adolescent reading and math ability. These results deepen our understanding of developmental cascade theory and mental model theory by identifying visuospatial reasoning (i.e., mental modeling) as a potential mechanism through which motor skills initiate cognitive development and academic success in reading and math. These findings also highlight the importance of early intervention programs targeting motor skills and illuminate the impact of those interventions on later cognitive and academic skills. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Analogical mapping across sensory modalities and evidence for a general analogy factor.

Analogy is a central component of human cognition. Analogical "mapping" of similarities between pieces of information present in our experiences supports cognitive and social development, classroom learning, and creative insights and innovation. To date, analogical mapping has primarily been studied within separate modalities of information (e.g., verbal analogies between words, visuo-spatial analogies between objects). However, human experience, in development and adulthood, includes highly variegated information (e.g., words, sounds, objects) received via multiple sensory and information-processing pathways (e.g., visual vs. auditory pathways). Whereas cross-modal correspondences (e.g., between pitch and height) have been observed, the correspondences were between individual items, rather than between relations. Thus, analogical mapping (characterized by second-order relations between relations) has not been directly tested as a basis for cross-modal correspondence. Here, we devised novel cross-modality analogical stimuli (lines-to-sounds, lines-to-words, words-to-sounds) that explicated second-order comparisons between relations. In four samples across three studies-participants demonstrated well-above-chance identification of cross-modal second-order relations, providing robust evidence of analogy across modalities. Further, performance across all analogy types was explained by a single factor, indicating a modality-general analogical ability (i.e., an "analo-g" factor). Analo-g explained performance over-and-above fluid intelligence as well as verbal and spatial abilities, though a stronger relationship to verbal than visuo-spatial ability emerged, consistent with verbal/semantic contributions to analogy. The present data suggests novel questions about our ability to find/learn second-order relations among the diverse information sources that populate human experience, and about cross-modal human and AI analogical mapping in developmental, educational, and creative contexts.